In the version of the News and Views 'Sea-ice-driven shallow overturning' originally published online (Nature Geosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2766; 2016), the wording of the standfirst and the sentence in the first paragraph beginning 'The common view has been...' was potentially misleading. This has now been edited in all versions of the News and Views to better reflect the intended meaning. Corrected 5 July 2016.