– If the pressure at the bottom of the ocean is so extreme, are the molecules pushed closer together? If so, why isn’t it hotter, if the molecules are bumping into each other more?

Question

– If the pressure at the bottom of the ocean is so extreme, are the molecules pushed closer together? If so, why isn’t it hotter, if the molecules are bumping into each other more?

In: 704

Answer 1

You also have to consider why a package of water is at the bottom to begin with. It’s there cause it’s cold and salty (high density) and given those properties it has sunk below warmer, less salty water (low density).

Google the thermohaline circulation, it’s fascinating.

(I see a lot of comments saying it would have dissipated the tiny heat gain, that totally ignores why the package of water would even sink to begin with, and that heat is conducted very poorly in water at this scale, heat transfer is almost solely by convection hence the thermohaline circulation.)