Tiny waves in the deep ocean can affect the climate thousands of kilometres away

Thousands of metres below the ocean’s surface, there are tiny waves moving through the water. Much like breaking waves at the beach, these small waves within the ocean must eventually break. When they do, they create turbulence and mixing, similar to what you feel from a big wave breaking on the beach. This might seem far removed from your everyday life. In fact, for a long time scientists have assumed this deep ocean turbulence only mattered over long time scales – that is, centuries to…