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deposited. In this photo, Geoff Hargreaves, curator, stores a sample of GISP2 deep
ice core from central Greenland in the main archive of the National Ice Core Labo-
ratory (a joint effort of the National Science Foundation and the United States Geo-
logical Survey with the University of New Hampshire as academic partner, at the
Denver Federal Center).
18
Northern (GISP2) and Southern (Byrd) δ O
33
35
37
δ18O (per mil)
39
41
43
10000 30000 50000 70000 90000
GISP2 Age (years before present)
1
2 COLOR PLATES
Heat release
to atmosphere
Pacific
Atlantic
Ocean
Ocean
Warm surface
current
Cold saline
bottom current
Indian
Ocean
Heat release
to atmosphere
PLATE 4a The great ocean conveyor belt. This is a schematic generally summariz-
ing some important features of the world’s ocean circulation. Warm, low-salinity
water, flows north along the surface of the Atlantic, becoming saltier (red arrows).
Cooling of this to saltier water in the North Atlantic produces high enough densities
for the water to sink and flow southward in the deep ocean and into other ocean
basins (blue arrows) (after Broecker, 1995).
4 COLOR PLATES
Shallow
15
50˚N Deep
14
Bottom
3
16 12 Uncertainty: 15-25% 1.5
1
25˚N
0.5
13 4 2.5 5.5
Atlantic
0˚
19 7
10 11
16
16 6 3 8
25˚S
9
23 27
50˚S Southern Ocean
157
140
21 8
January
60
30
Latitude
-30
-60
60
30
Latitude
-30
-60
PLATE 5 January and July surface air temperature anomalies in degrees Celsius
averaged over the years 1970-1980. The “anomaly” is defined as the deviation of
air temperature from the average air temperature along a latitude circle passing
through the point in question. Removing the mean makes it easier to see East-West
variations in temperature without being distracted by the much larger North-South
variations.
6 COLOR PLATES
PLATE 6 Paths along the solution curves of two versions of Stommel’s box model
showing the rate of the ocean overturning when the freshwater forcing flux H is
increased and then decreased. Only in the case of weak diffusion (orange) does the
model respond with an abrupt change, once a threshold in H is crossed. In the case
of strong diffusion (green), at any time, there is a unique equilibrium.
PLATE 8 During the last ice age, sea levels were approximately 100 m lower than
present because more water was contained in ice sheets, and thus not available to
the oceans. The dark blue shading around Florida and Southeast Asia demarcates
areas that, while 20,000 years ago were dry land, are now under water. Sea levels
would rise and flood coastal regions, to the approximate levels shown in the figure
(dark green area), if the West Antarctic ice sheet or much of the Greenland ice sheet
were to melt. The black line shows the present coast. SOURCE: Burroughs, 1999.
8 COLOR PLATES