Eli5 If putting something under pressure increases the temperature why is the bottom of the ocean so cold?

Question

Eli5 If putting something under pressure increases the temperature why is the bottom of the ocean so cold?

In: 561

Answer 1

Increasing pressure only definitively increases the temperature if all other variables remain the same. If the other variables change then that affects the degree to which the temperature changes. Water’s density changes with temperature to a maximum density at around 4°C, so the colder water has more molecules in the same amount of volume to disperse the energy from the pressure than the amount of water in the same volume at a higher temperature.