Seawater: it’s just water from the sea, right? In fact, the thermodynamic definition of “seawater” has just been updated. This new definition will give researchers a better understanding the movement of heat through the world’s deep oceans.

“To date the ocean’s role in the climate system has been handled only in an approximate manner,” researchers said, “both because of a lack of theoretical understanding of the ‘heat content’ of seawater, and also because of the inability to calculate the required thermodynamic quantities.

“The new definition of seawater gives a more accurate calculation of salinity in which, the flow velocities in the deep ocean below 1,000 metres will be more accurately calculated.”