Agulhas Current

Scientists already know that climate change shifts ocean currents and pressure systems.

And the researchers have now found that changes in the East Australian Current and the Agulhas Current of the coast of South America have led to an intensification of ocean upwelling, a process in which deep, cold water is pushed to the surface.

A report in the journal Nature Climate Change found that these upwellings can create colder killer events leading to mass deaths of animals living close to their temperature limits.

The authors were in fact able to link mass animal deaths in 2021 to such an intense cold upwelling.

And now we now know that it happens when currents collide.

Like if you have, say, in South Africa, the Agulhas current comes down from north to south along the east coast of Africa.

And then you have storm energy coming up from Antarctica with not much in the way, right? And they collide.

And then think of it as like two trains just smashing and the energy is forced upwards.