Ocean Warming has Doubled over the last Thirty Years

hidden was solved when it was found that it was being trapped deep in world’s oceans. While this had granted us a minor reprieve in the otherwise measurable increase in the atmosphere’s temperature, a new study has shown to what extent the ocean’s heat-absorbing ability has been helping us.

The study, titled "Industrial-era global ocean heat uptake doubles in recent decades", drew data from both modern and historical sources, such as the Challenger Expedition. This data was incorporated into computer simulations, used to chart the changes in the temperature of the ocean’s depths over the past century and a half. Their finding was that over the past 150 years, roughly half of the ocean’s thermal uptake has taken place since 1997, a period of under three decades. The study was able to chart temperature fluctuations from both manmade and natural sources, such as volcanic eruptions, and fossil fuel-induced warming.

Roughly 35 percent of the heat absorbed by the oceans over the industrial era is now stored at a depth below 700 meters (2,300 ft). While heat stored in the ocean’s depth may help reduce the impact on the atmosphere itself over the short term, water increases in volume as it’s temperature increases, itself leading to higher sea levels, independent of increases from meltwater originating from sources on land.