Transport heat Equator to poles Transport nutrients and organisms Influences weather and climate Influences commerce Surface Currents The upper 400 meters of the ocean 10 Deep Water Currents ID: 674819
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Ocean Currents Why is Ocean Circulation ..." is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Ocean CurrentsSlide2
Why is Ocean Circulation Important?
Transport
heat
Equator to poles
Transport nutrients and organismsInfluences weather and climateInfluences commerceSlide3
Surface
Currents
The upper 400 meters of the ocean (10%).
Deep Water Currents
Thermal/Salinity currents (90%)Ocean CurrentsSlide4
Wind-driven surface currentsSlide5
30
o
30
o
60
o
60
o
90
o
90
o
0
o
Forces
Solar Heating (temp, density)
Winds
Coriolis
Surface CurrentsSlide6
What do Nike shoes, rubber ducks, and hockey gloves have to do with currents?Slide7
Lost at SeaSlide8
January 1992 - shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of China
November 1992 - half had drifted north to the Bering Sea and Alaska; the other half went south to Indonesia and Australia
1995 to 2000 - spent five years in the Arctic ice floes, slowly working their way through the glaciers
2001 - the duckies bobbed over the place where the Titanic had sunk
2003 - they were predicted to begin washing up onshore in New England, but only one was spotted in Maine
2007 - a couple duckies and frogs were found on the beaches of Scotland and southwest England.
Duckie ProgressSlide9
2004-2007
Barber’s PointSlide10
Surface and Deep-Sea Current Interactions
“
Global Ocean Conveyor Belt”Slide11
Transport
by Currents
Surface currents play significant roles in transport heat energy from equatorial waters towards the
poles
Currents also involved with gas exchanges, especially O2 and CO2Nutrient exchanges important within surface waters (including outflow from continents) and deeper waters (upwelling and
downwelling
)
Pollution dispersal
Impact on fisheries and other resourcesSlide12
Thermohaline
Circulation
Global ocean circulation that is driven by differences in the
density
of the sea water which is controlled by
temperature
and
salinity
.Slide13
Thermohaline Circulation
White sections represent warm surface currents.
Purple sections represent deep cold currentsSlide14
Upwelling and
downwelling
Vertical movement of water
Upwelling
= movement of deep water to surfaceHoists cold, nutrient-rich water to surface
Produces high productivities and abundant marine
life
Downwelling
= movement of surface water down
Moves warm, nutrient-depleted surface water down
Not associated with high productivities or abundant marine lifeSlide15
upwelling
downwellingSlide16
El Ni
ño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
El Ni
ño
= warm surface current in equatorial eastern Pacific that occurs periodically around December
Southern Oscillation
= change in atmospheric pressure over Pacific Ocean accompanying El
Ni
ño
ENSO
describes a combined oceanic-atmospheric disturbanceSlide17
El Niño
Oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean
Occurs during December
2 to 7 year cycle
Sea Surface Temperature
Atmospheric Winds
UpwellingSlide18
Normal conditions in the Pacific OceanSlide19
El Ni
ño
conditions (ENSO warm phase)Slide20
La Ni
ña
conditions
(cool
phase; opposite of El Niño)Slide21
El Ni
ñ
o
Non El Ni
ño
1997Slide22
Non El Niño
El Niño
Thermocline
–
layer of ocean right beneath the “mixed layer” where temperatures decrease rapidly.
upwellingSlide23
El Niño events over the last 55
years
El Niño warmings (red) and La Niña coolings (blue) since 1950.
Source: NOAA Climate Diagnostics CenterSlide24
El Nino Animation
World Wide Effects of El Niño
Weather patterns
Marine Life
Economic resourcesSlide25
Effects of severe El Ni
ños