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A surface current is a current caused by wind direction

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Q: What causes ocean surface currents?
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Continue Learning about English Language Arts

How do maelstrom's form?

They form when warm water circulates below the ocean surface. then rises this causes a wirlpool of water. faster the current the larger the wirlpool.


What is a kids definition for surface tension?

surface tension is a force present within the surface layer of a liquid that causes the layer to behave as an elastic sheet.


What is the opposite of bottom?

The antonym is bottom.


What are seamounts?

A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island.


What is the definition of ocean currents?

The Coriolis effect results in a deflection of fluid flows (to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in the Southern Hemisphere). Because the distance around the Earth decreases as one moves away from the equator, and because the Earth rotates in a counter clockwise direction as seen from the north pole, air and water masses are deflected to the east as they move from the equator to the poles, and to the west as they move from the poles to the equator. This has profound effects on the flow of the oceans. In particular it means the flow goes around high and low pressure systems, permitting them to persist for long periods of time. As a result, tiny variations in pressure can produce measurable currents. A slope of one part in one million in sea surface height, for example, will result in a current of 1 cm/s at mid-latitudes. The fact that the Coriolis effect is largest at the poles and weak at the equator results in sharp, relatively steady western boundary currents which are absent on eastern boundaries

Related questions

What type of current is caused by wind on the oceans surface?

Surface ocean currents are caused by winds. As wind blows across the surface, the wind pulls the water and causes waves.


What force between the ocean and wind causes surface currents?

;


What causes deep ocean surface currents?

The gravitation pull on the earth.


The Coriolis effect causes surface ocean currents to?

bend and curve


What forms surface ocean currents?

Ocean currents is what forms surface currents. This starts deep in the ocean.


A force between the ocean and the wind causes what type surface currents?

friction


What causes the patterns of surface currents in the ocean?

The Earth rotating and its tilt of the axis forms the oceans' tides and currents.


What causes ocean currents on the surface?

Surface currents in the ocean are the continuous movements of water found at the surface to just a few feet below, these currents are generated by the planet's prevailing winds-which are a direct result of the Sun's radiation and Earth's rotation.


How does energy in earths interior cause changes to earths surface?

The energy from the core of the earth causes currents in the molten layers, the way there are currents in the ocean. These currents are what causes the Tectonic Plates to move along the surface of the earth.


What causes surface ocean currents to curve to the right in the northern hemisphere?

Coriolis effect


What causes currents on the ocean?

Surface currents in the ocean are the continuous movements of water found at the surface to just a few feet below, these currents are generated by the planet's prevailing winds-which are a direct result of the Sun's radiation and Earth's rotation.


What force between the ocean the wind causes surface currents?

Ocean currents are dure to a cobination of wind, the Corilis effect, and temperature differences.