Thermohaline circulation



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circulation of the oceans at a large scale. It is caused by the difference in salinity and temperature between masses of water. The cold salt-water sinks close to Norway and Greenland. It is reheated in the Tropics and then rises to the surface again where it cools and so on and so forth as a convector belt. It is estimated that it takes several thousand years for a single molecule of water to complete the circuit.