A controversial pause in global warming may be due to heat vanishing into the depths of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans.
But surface temperatures will start rising again in a decade, according to scientists in the US.
The massive movement of heat is thought to explain why the rapid rate of climate change that marked the end of the 20th century has ground almost to a halt.
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A pause in global warming may be due to heat vanishing in the ocean. The top image shows global average surface temperatures, where black dots are yearly averages. The middle image of heat content, compared to the average, in the north Atlantic Ocean. The bottom image shows the salinity of the seawater
A sudden shift in northern Atlantic salinity, making water saltier and dense, is believed to have triggered the effect.
'When it's heavy water on top of light water, it just plunges very fast and takes heat with it,' said Professor Ka-Kit Tung, one of the study authors from the University of Washington.
Since the turn of the century, little increase in the average temperature of the Earth's surface has been recorded.
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