Deep below the surface of the North Pacific Ocean , there ’s a foreign patch of water system that lie much stagnant and trap beneath the airfoil . In fact , the last clock time this water came into contact with Earth ’s atmospheric state the world was home to Vikings , Mayans , and Romans .
A new subject area in the scientific journalNaturehas looked into the so - called “ shadow zone ” of the North Pacific to see why it has remained trapped for over 1,000 years .
" Carbon-14 dating had already told us the most ancient piddle lied in the deep North Pacific . But until now we had struggled to understand why the very oldest waters cower around the profoundness of 2 kilometre [ 1.2 miles ] , " lead source Dr Casimir de Lavergne , from the University of New South Wales , Australia , said in astatement .
" What we have find is that at around 2 kilometers [ 1.2 miles ] below the surface of the Indian and Pacific Oceans there is a ' darkness zona ' with barely any upright move that suspend sea water supply in an area for centuries . ”
arm with premature research on this geographical zone , the scientists on this project began to appear where others previously had n’t – the ocean floor . They found that the depth and shape of the sea floor in this region dally a huge part in trapping the H2O in this one spot .
water system current in the Pacific usually set out with salty Antarctic frosting melting and guide to the bottom of the ocean . As H2O heads northerly into the Pacific , it ’s tie upwards by surface current of warmer upper ocean H2O from the tropic seas . Currents in the deep sea also aid " push " dull waters up and north . Together , these forces aid to insure the piddle flow with a erect circulation and the layers begin to mingle more .
However , in this “ tincture geographical zone ” , the water remains too far from these surface current . Crucially , it ’s also not reached by deeper sea currents either because of the ocean floor ’s gravelly topography and length from any geothermic heat sources . Since the bottom water can not rise above 2.5 km ( 1.5 mi ) below the surface , the water above just peg around in a still limbo .
" When this isolated shadow zone gob millennia old ocean water it also traps nutrient and carbon which have a unmediated impact on the capacity of the sea to alter mood over centenary sentence scales , " said Dr Fabien Roquet , a survey author from Stockholm University in Sweden .
