The thermohaline circulation transports heat from one hemisphere to another. In which direction does this energy flow?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To tackle this question, let's first recall the basic structure of the thermohaline circulation and how it transports heat.
Option 1: 'From South to North, alongside the upper branch of the circulation' — This aligns with the widely taught view that warm surface waters move poleward in the upper (surface) branch, delivering heat to higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. The southern source waters rise and move northward near the surface, so energy flows from south to north along the upper branch.
Option 2: 'From North to South, alongside the lower branch of the circulation' — The lower branch is the deep, colder, saltier return flow that generally moves southward, not northward, and it does not carry heat toward the equator in the same way. This makes the statement incorrect concerning the direction of heat transport.
Option 3: 'From South to North, alongside the lower branch of the circulation' — While the overall system does transport heat northward, the lower branch is characterized by deep, cold waters returning southward, not by carrying heat from south to north. So this pairing of direction and branch is inaccurate.
Option 4: 'From North to South, alongside the upper branch of the circulation' — The upper branch indeed carries surface waters toward the poles, but the dominant poleward heat transport occurs from the tropics toward higher latitudes, which is generally northward in the Northern Hemisphere. This option reverses the typical hemispheric orientation and misstates the heat flow direction.
Overall, the reasoning points to the energy transport being northward along the upper, surface branch, originating from southern regions and moving toward the Northern Hemisphere, which matches Option 1 exactly. The other choices mix up the branch (upper vs lower) with opposite or incorrect hemispheric directions, leading to conceptual errors about where heat is transported and in which part of the circulation it travels.

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The thermohaline circulation transports heat from one hemisphere to another. In which direction does this energy flow?

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