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The annual freeze and melt cycle is set by the annual cycle of solar insolation and of ocean and atmospheric temperature and of variability in this annual cycle. In the Arctic, the area of ocean covered by sea ice increases over winter from a minimum in September to a maximum in March or sometimes February, before melting over the summer.
The temperature of the deep ocean drops gradually with depth. As saline water does not freeze until it reaches −2.3 °C (27.9 °F) (colder as depth and pressure increase) the temperature well below the surface is usually not far from zero degrees. [2] The thermocline varies in depth.
The conveyor belt begins on the surface of the ocean near the pole in the North Atlantic. Here, the water is chilled by Arctic temperatures. It also gets saltier because when sea ice forms, the salt does not freeze and is left behind in the surrounding water. The cold water is now more dense, due to the added salts, and sinks toward the ocean ...
The salts do not fit in the crystal structure of water ice, so the salt is expelled. Since the oceans are salty, this process is important in nature. Salt rejected by the forming sea ice drains into the surrounding seawater, creating saltier, denser brine. The denser brine sinks, influencing ocean circulation.
Because about half of the oceans' water was frozen solid as ice, the remaining water would be twice as salty as it is today, lowering its freezing point. When the ice sheet melted under a hot atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, it would cover the oceans with a layer of warm (50°C) freshwater up to 2 kilometres thick.
While the majority of Earth's surface is covered by oceans, those oceans make up just a small fraction of the mass of the planet. The mass of Earth's oceans is estimated to be 1.37 × 10 21 kg, which is 0.023% of the total mass of Earth, 6.0 × 10 24 kg.
21. Cakes. Cakes adorned with delicate frostings or fillings, such as whipped cream or fruit compotes, can undergo unfavorable changes when frozen.
AMOC in relation to the global thermohaline circulation . The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is the main current system in the Atlantic Ocean, [1]: 2238 and is also part of the global thermohaline circulation, which connects the world's oceans with a single "conveyor belt" of continuous water exchange. [18]