New discoveries reveal the origins of the most powerful current on Earth

Scientific result

6 March 2024

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the largest ocean current on Earth, connecting the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. This current largely regulates the exchange of heat, moisture, carbon and nutrients between the Southern Ocean and other ocean basins, which in turn has a significant impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and the global climate. Despite its pivotal role in global ocean circulation, climate dynamics and the stability of the Antarctic ice, when and how this current developed has been widely debated for almost forty years.

Read more on the CNRS Terre & Univers website

GET contact: Mathieu Benoit

Sources :

Evangelinos, D., Etourneau, J., van de Flierdt, T. et al. Late Miocene onset of the modern Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Nat. Geosci. 17, 165–170 (2024).

More news

Discovery of a large reservoir of hydrogen in an underground mine in Alabama

An international scientific team involving researchers from the Institut des sciences de la Terre (ISTerre* – CNRS/IRD/UGA/Univ. Gustave Eiffel/USMB) and GET has just discovered a reservoir of natural hydrogen in […]

IR OZCAR: links between hydrological diversity and critical zone heterogeneity

The critical zone is the most superficial part of our planet where water, rocks, air and life come together to shape our environment. In order to better understand how regional […]

Zone-art: the first art-science collaboration in the Zones Ateliers network

“The academic article is not the only format for writing theory. You can theorise with a camera, a paintbrush, a score, etc. (…) a theory cannot be reduced to a […]

Search