The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and its Hypothetical Collapse

Abstract

Collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is often invoked as an explanation of major past climate changes and as a major risk for future climate. Many of these arguments appear, from an observer’s point of view, as far-more definitive than is warranted. In the hypothetical event of a future collapse, the implications may be much less severe than those from many other elements of global change already underway. The Gulf Stream system, and its required return flow of mass, implies that changed circulations will nonetheless continue to carry significant amounts of heat, carbon etc., poleward even without any AMOC.