We have already seen that, were it not for the great mass of warm water
which finds its way to the polar regions, the temperature of these
regions would be enormously lower than they really are. It has been
shown likewise that the comparatively high temperature of north-western
Europe is due to the same cause. But if it be doubtful whether the
Gulf-stream reaches our shores, and if it be true that, even supposing
it did, it “could only affect the _most superficial_ stratum,” and that
the great mass of warm water found by Dr. Carpenter in his dredging
expeditions came directly from the equatorial regions, and not from
the Gulf-stream, then the principal part of the heating-effect must be
attributed, not to the Gulf-stream, but to the general flow of water
from the equatorial regions. It surely would not, then, be too much to
assume that the quantity of heat conveyed from equatorial regions by
this general flow of water into the North Atlantic is at least equal to
that conveyed by the Gulf-stream. If we assume this to be the amount of
heat conveyed by the two agencies into the Atlantic from inter-tropical
regions, it will, of course, be equal to twice that conveyed by the
Gulf-stream alone.
We shall now consider whether the area of the Atlantic to the north of
the equator is sufficient to supply the amount of heat demanded by Dr.
Carpenter’s theory.
The entire area of the Atlantic, extending from the equator to the
Tropic of Cancer, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico,
is about 7,700,000 square miles.
The quantity of heat conveyed by the Gulf-stream through the Straits of
Florida is, as we have already endeavoured to show, equal to all the
heat received from the sun by 1,560,935 square miles at the equator.
The annual quantity of heat received from the sun by the torrid zone
per unit surface, taking the mean of the whole zone, is to that
received by the equator as 39 to 40, consequently the quantity of
heat conveyed by the Gulf-stream is equal to all the heat received by
1,600,960 square miles of the Atlantic in the torrid zone.
But if, according to Dr. Carpenter’s views, the quantity of heat
conveyed from the tropical regions is double that conveyed by the
Gulf-stream, the amount of heat in this case conveyed into the Atlantic
in temperate regions will be equal to all the heat received from the
sun by 3,201,920 square miles of the Atlantic between the equator and
the Tropic of Cancer. This is 32/77ths of all the heat received from
the sun by that area.
Taking the annual quantity received per unit surface at the equator at
1,000, the quantities received by the three zones would be respectively
as follows:—
Equator 1000
Torrid zone 975
Temperate zone 757
Frigid zone 454
Now, if we remove from the Atlantic in tropical regions 32/77ths of the
heat received from the sun, we remove 405 parts from every 975 received
from the sun, and consequently only 570 parts per unit surface remain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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