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506

What heats the oceans?

What heats the oceans?

(post is archived)

[–] 1 pt

What heats the oceans?

The roughly 1000 Watts/meter squared amount of solar energy coming from the sun heats the oceans. The water at the bottom of the oceans is quite cold. It can sustain frozen methane hydrates. The geothermal energy from the tectonic plate ridges and other thermal vents are not significant in the warming of the oceans, even in the local vicinity of such vents. There just isn't enough geothermal energy to account for the roughly 1/2 year warming the oceans go through. If geothermal energy were causing oceans to warm, the various ocean currents would line up with the geothermal vents and rifts and would warm year round. They do not do that. The sun is the source of the heating.