Raja Ampat is a stunning tropical paradise often called “diving’s final frontier”. It has the highest known concentration and diversity of marine life on earth, with 75% of all the world’s coral species, more than 1300 species of fish, 6 of the world’s seven marine turtle species and 27 varieties of marine mammals. All in the pristine maritime metropolis where manta rays glide, whale sharks breed, sperm whales feed, turtles lay eggs, and tropical fish dazzle you with their spectacular colours.
The global conveyor belt, known as ‘the thermohaline circulation’ or ‘the meridional overturning circulation’, is a system of ocean currents that circulates water around the world’s oceans in a vast and continuous loop. This circulation pattern is crucial in regulating the earth’s climate by distributing heat and maintaining the planet’s temperature and climate patterns.
Here’s how the global conveyor belt works:
Surface Currents: Warm ocean water from the equator flows towards the poles as surface currents. As this warm water moves toward higher latitudes, it loses heat to the atmosphere, which warms the adjacent regions.
Cooling and Density Increase: As the warm surface water moves towards higher latitudes, it cools down. When it reaches polar regions, it can become very cold and dense. Additionally, as water evaporates in these regions, it leaves behind salts, increasing the water’s salinity.
Sinking and Deep Water Formation: Cold, dense, and salty water sinks to the ocean’s depths, initiating the deep water formation process. The sinking occurs in several key regions, such as the North Atlantic near Greenland and the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. These are known as “downwelling” areas.
Deep Water Transport: Once the dense water sinks, it flows as deep ocean currents toward the equator. This cold, deep water movement is an essential part of the global conveyor belt. It gradually spreads throughout the world’s oceans, slowly returning toward the surface.
Upwelling: As the deep water circulates towards the equator, it eventually rises back to the surface in regions where upwelling occurs. Upwelling is typically found in coastal areas where strong winds or other factors push the deep water up towards the surface. As the deep water rises, it brings nutrients from the ocean floor to the surface, supporting rich marine ecosystems.
This global conveyor belt is critical to earth’s climate system because it redistributes heat, regulates temperatures, and influences weather patterns. As scuba divers and marine biologists began to travel to the more remote eastern parts of Indonesia, they discovered the absolute wonder of Raja Ampat’s biodiversity. It was soon realised that Raja Ampat was far more important to marine conservation than anyone had ever thought, and agencies like Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Nature Conservancy started to move in.
