Currents: Video Notes
What are Currents?
Currents are cohesive streams of water that travels through the Earth's oceans.
What are the two types of Currents?
Gulf Stream Currents: Huge Linear currents that can last a thousand years.
Eddy Currents: Smaller than Gulf Stream Currents, last a shorter time, and are circular.
What are the two types of Circulations?
1. Surface Circulation, driven by the movement of water.
2. Deep Circulation, driven by the density of the water.
What are Gyres?
Gyres are circular currents that are located in different parts of the oceans. These can trap objects like trash, and circulate them forever.
There be Hills on the water, up to 3 feet high, that reflect the topography below them. The Ocean isn't flat!
This is also due to something called "Thermal Expansion", where warmer water, like other materials, expands.
Currents move in the direction of the Coriolis Effect, due to the change in gravity from the poles. They do not move according to the wind. Also, they move according to the land underneath them, and the tectonic plates.
The North Atlantic Current forms a large Gyre, because of the combination of the Easterly and Westerly Winds as well as the temperature difference from the Tropics to the North Atlantic.
What are "Longshore Currents"?
Longshore Currents are Currents that run parallel to Shore, and against the wind. These cause waves to reach bays and inlets at a sloped angle, not parallel to the shore.
What are "Upwelling Currents"?
THey are Currents that well up.
What is the "Global Conveyor Belt"?
It is a massive, long chain where multiple currents link together, bringing large temperature changes to areas like northern Europe.
Currents are cohesive streams of water that travels through the Earth's oceans.
What are the two types of Currents?
Gulf Stream Currents: Huge Linear currents that can last a thousand years.
Eddy Currents: Smaller than Gulf Stream Currents, last a shorter time, and are circular.
What are the two types of Circulations?
1. Surface Circulation, driven by the movement of water.
2. Deep Circulation, driven by the density of the water.
What are Gyres?
Gyres are circular currents that are located in different parts of the oceans. These can trap objects like trash, and circulate them forever.
There be Hills on the water, up to 3 feet high, that reflect the topography below them. The Ocean isn't flat!
This is also due to something called "Thermal Expansion", where warmer water, like other materials, expands.
Currents move in the direction of the Coriolis Effect, due to the change in gravity from the poles. They do not move according to the wind. Also, they move according to the land underneath them, and the tectonic plates.
The North Atlantic Current forms a large Gyre, because of the combination of the Easterly and Westerly Winds as well as the temperature difference from the Tropics to the North Atlantic.
What are "Longshore Currents"?
Longshore Currents are Currents that run parallel to Shore, and against the wind. These cause waves to reach bays and inlets at a sloped angle, not parallel to the shore.
What are "Upwelling Currents"?
THey are Currents that well up.
What is the "Global Conveyor Belt"?
It is a massive, long chain where multiple currents link together, bringing large temperature changes to areas like northern Europe.