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Are wind-driven currents found near the surface of the ocean or in the deep waters of oceans?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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What characteristic of a current is important in affecting climate?
the air in the atmosphere and the waters in our oceans circulate in known patterns in an effort to redistribute the energy. In the atmosphere, we end up with the prevailing wind bands in both hemispheres. In the oceans, we end up with both surface and deep water currents. It is the surface currents that have a marked effect on climate.
Are wind-driven currents near the surface or in the deep waters?
Vertically
What oceans do the great white live in?
Coastal Surface waters in all major oceans.
Do deep ocean currents and surface currents mix?
Deep ocean currents and surface currents do meet, but mixing is limited. The waters stratify based on temperatures and salinity. The higher the salinity, the heavier the water.
Currents that involve warm water flowing in different directions at different speeds close to the top of oceans?
Surface currents involve warm water that flows in different directions and different speeds that stay close to the top of the oceans. They originate in tropical waters and flow in circular motions from all the major gyres of the world ocean.
How do differences in density cause currents to flow both in the surface waters of the oceans and in the bottom waters of the ocean?
The differing densities of water create a consistent movement between the various thermal layers. As water is cooled, it actually expands, so it rises, and as it is warmed it sinks.
What causes cold nutrientrich waters to move up to the oceans surface?
ocean fronts
Does the interconnected waters or the oceans cover over 70 percent of the earths surface?
Yes
What causes water currents?
Surface ocean currents are mainly wind-driven and occur in all of the world's oceans. Examples of large surface currents that move across vast expanses of ocean are the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, the California Current, the Atlantic South Equatorial Current, and the Westwind Drift. Associated with surface currents are counter-surface and underlying currents. Surface ocean currents are deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect holds that because the Earth is spinning, surface waters move in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The currents eventually come into contact with the continents which deflect them, creating giant oceanic current circles known as gyres. Vertical and ocean-bottom currents are mainly driven by density differences caused by changes in temperature and salinity. Originating in polar regions, cold, salty waters sink to the ocean bottom and move toward the opposite poles where they again surface. Vertical upwelling currents can also be caused by winds "blowing off" a coastline. The displaced waters are then replaced by underlying bottom waters. Currents are important to marine life as they help to move food and nutrients, making them available for photosynthesis, metabolic requirements and/or consumption.
What limits primary productivity in tropical oceans?
Nutrients are in deeper (colder) waters while light is in surface waters.
What create ocean currents?
Sunlight warms the waters on the ocean surface. Some heat energy is transferred to cooler waters through convection.
What kind of climate does a Portuguese man of war live in?
The Portuguese man-of-war prefers the warm waters of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, but are found in all oceans. They live on the ocean surface. The Portuguese man-of-war cannot propel itself, but is moved along by currents, tides, and waves.
