The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)’s Missing Puzzle Piece
On why collapse could be much closer than predicted: what happens when the Atlantic Ocean’s heart stops beating?
Professor Stefan Rahmstorf’s coffee had gone cold. Sitting in his study at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, he stared at the screen, re-reading the paper that had just landed in his inbox.
Rahmstorf had devoted his life to studying the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), dissecting this vast underwater system that quietly acts as an undercover climate engine.
For thousands of years, the AMOC has quietly powered the planet’s climate stability. Its network of currents distributes warm and cold water between the poles through deep and near-surface currents. During its northward journey, it carries warm, salty surface water from the tropics through the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico (where waters can reach hot tub temperatures), then along the U.S. East Coast before crossing the Atlantic toward Greenland and Iceland. There, the warm waters meet frigid Arctic air, releasing their heat into the atmosphere like a global radiator. Cooled and densified, the water plunges into the abyss and crawls along the seabed all the way to Antarctica, perpetuating…
