DoomsdaysCW🎶 "We're setting sail, to a place on the map from which no-one has ever returned..."🎵
- Karl Wallinger, World Party, "Ship of Fools" (1986).
A steady ocean pattern just failed for the first time ever observed
The failure of the Gulf of Panama’s seasonal upwelling system has left scientists wondering what happens next.
by Doyle Rice, Sept. 14, 2025
"Scientists have spotted something dramatically unusual in the ocean, and it could be a warning sign of things to come.
"Warm air dances with cold air; cold water chases warm water. It's all a part of a predictable, stable dance of currents and climate patterns that naturally happen all across the Earth. Until it doesn't.
"For the first time since records began 40 years ago, the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Gulf of Panama failed to emerge this year. Scientists aren't sure if it's a fluke or a new normal. Specifically, the Gulf of Panama’s seasonal upwelling system has consistently delivered cool, nutrient-rich waters via northerly trade winds every January-April for at least 40 years. But not this year.
" 'Time will tell if this is a real-life example of a climate tipping point – if the failure of upwelling continues in future years,' said Tim Lenton, of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, a tipping point expert who was not involved in the new research. The findings were reported last week in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/LL39D
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