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Nature Geoscience 1, 423–424 (1 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo243

Palaeoceanography: Saline water sinking

Silke Voigt

In the modern North Atlantic Ocean, deep water is formed when relatively salty surface water cools in the polar region, sinks and then spreads across the bottom of the world's oceans. Once out of contact with the atmosphere and its wind-induced stirring, the temperatures of a water mass change very little.