It is becoming increasingly urgent to study the impacts of climate change on the global ocean system. Future projections indicate significant changes in the Mediterranean and Atlantic circulation system, which could have unpredictable climatic consequences, especially for one of the most influential ocean currents in the global climate: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
This highly sensitive ocean system, which is showing signs of weakening, could collapse in the future due to the effects of climate change and polar ice melt, with effects on global ocean regulation and the climate that are difficult to predict.
Studying the changes that could lead AMOC to collapse is the aim of the new MORIA 2 oceanographic campaign, led by the University of Barcelona. From 22 June to 7 July, it will study the circulation of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) and its impact on the Atlantic Ocean circulation. These water masses that leave the Mediterranean Sea are a constant and powerful flow of warm and more saline water, moving from the Strait of Gibraltar to higher latitudes in the Atlantic Ocean.
AMOC: a current in danger of collapsing?
On board the vessel Odón de Buen, the expedition will sail from the port of Vigo to Reykjavík (Iceland) to study the behaviour of the AMOC along the European Atlantic margin. This campaign is the continuation of MORIA 1 , which was carried out in 2025 aboard the oceanographic vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa and successfully covered the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Peninsula margin.
The MORIA project is led by researchers Leopoldo Pena and Isabel Cacho, with the prominent participation of experts Jaime Frigola and Galderic Lastras, all of whom are members of the Marine Geosciences Research Group (Gmar) at the UB's Faculty of Earth Sciences.
