
Global warming caused vital Atlantic Ocean currents to collapse just before the last ice age, a new study suggests.
The weakening currents triggered a cascade of effects, resulting in a dramatic cooling of the Nordic Seas — the Greenland, Iceland and Norwegian seas — while the surrounding oceans grew warmer. And scientists say we could be heading toward the same thing again, as the world warms with climate change and temperatures race closer to the levels that existed before the last ice age.
“Our study is indeed alarming regarding what we might be heading to,” study lead author Mohamed Ezat, an associate professor and paleoceanographer at The Arctic University of Norway, told Live Science in an email.
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