A powerful system of Atlantic Ocean currents can change far more abruptly than scientists once thought. New evidence from sediments collected off Brazil’s northeastern coast shows that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, experienced sudden bursts of strengthening thousands of years ago, even while the system was otherwise much weaker.
The finding comes from researchers in Brazil and Germany, who reconstructed past changes in the AMOC using tiny fossil shells preserved in a marine sediment core. Their results suggest that the Atlantic circulation may be capable of a series of abrupt changes rather than simply moving steadily toward a weaker state.
