More than 90% of the effect of global warming is being absorbed by the oceans, with the seas absorbing energy equivalent to a nuclear bomb every second, a new study has found.

New research has analysed records going back to 1871, and found that only a tiny amount of the heat trapped by climate change is affecting the land and ice caps.

Most of the energy is being stored in the ocean depths – and could drive sea-level rise and increase the power of hurricanes.

The Guardian calculates that the amount of energy being absorbed is equivalent to the energy yield of a nuclear bomb every second.

The researchers found that lobal warming of the oceans of 436 x 1021 Joules has occurred from 1871 to present (roughly 1000 times annual worldwide human primary energy consumption).

The researchers found that comparable levels of warming happened from 1920-1945 and 1990-2015.

Prof Laure Zanna who led the international team of researchers said: ‘Our reconstruction is in line with other direct estimates and provides evidence for ocean warming before the 1950s.’

Prof Samar Khatiwala ‘Our approach is akin to “painting” different bits of the ocean surface with dyes of different colors and monitoring how they spread into the interior over time. We can then apply that information to anything else – for example humanmade carbon or heat anomalies – that is transported by ocean circulation.

‘If we know what the sea surface temperature anomaly was in 1870 in the North Atlantic Ocean we can figure out how much it contributes to the warming in, say, the deep Indian Ocean in 2018. The idea goes back nearly 200 years to the English mathematician George Green.’