Mechanism of an anomalous shift of the Gulf Stream in 2011

Resumo

A new physical mechanism is suggested to explain unprecedented (about 200-km) northward Gulf Stream shift during summer–fall of 2011 near the Carolina coasts. It is substantiated that inertial motion along straight line and “sliding” off the former trajectory during eastward turn were due to anomalous water heating to a specific temperature (19–20°C), which caused a several-fold reduction in sea water shear viscosity as a result of thermally induced conversion of H₂O spin para-/ortho-isomers. It is shown that the anomalous water heating is a consequence of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and associated oil spill; this has led to rainbow film formation over the area of a hundred thousand square kilometers (http://newsland.com/news/detail/id/1218207), thus ensuring extra ocean warming.