Today's Oceans Are Warming At Faster Rate

According to a new study, the world's oceans are warming at an increasing rate. Since the pre-industrial times, half of the increase of heat is accounted by only the past 20 years alone.

The study was published in Nature Climate Change and came to bring more light on the heat being absorbed by the oceans of the world. Ocean water has absorbed more than 30 percent of the carbon dioxide generated by mankind and more than 90 percent of the excess heat.

It is known that the ocean water has a higher capacity to absorb heat than the air. For instance, in 2011 alone, the Southern Ocean had absorbed around 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide, around the equivalent to the total annual carbon output of the European Union.

Much of the extra heat in the oceans, according to U.S. scientists, is buried deep underwater. They found that depths below 700 meters contain around 35 percent of the additional heat. In the far reaches of the ocean is present far more heat than just 20 years ago. At that time, the depth of the ocean had contained only 20 percent of the extra heat produced by the greenhouse gases.

By using data and models stretching back to 1865, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have analyzed heat content changes in various depths of the world's oceans.

Since the industrial revolution, the deepwater heat content has increased by "several tenths of a degree", according to the lead author of the study, Peter Gleckler, cited by Irish Times. He also declared that this is a "huge increase" and that the oceans warming is gaining alarming pace.

These findings are concerning because oceans warming can have serious ecological implications. One of the potential consequences is an increase in storms intensity and a loss of aquatic species.