What are deep-ocean currents caused by?
In contrast to wind-driven surface currents, deep-ocean currents are caused by differences in water density. The process that creates deep currents is called thermohaline circulation—“thermo” referring to temperature and “haline” to saltiness.
What causes the Atlantic Current?
Driven by the global thermohaline circulation, the North Atlantic Current is part of the wind-driven Gulf Stream, which goes further east and north from the North American coast across the Atlantic and into the Arctic Ocean.
What causes deep ocean currents quizlet?
What causes deep water currents to move? It is caused by temperature and salinity of the water. It is from the surface to 200m deep. It is caused by wind action, Earth’s spin, and the shape of the continents.
What are the effects of deep ocean currents?
Answer: Ocean currents act much like a conveyer belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. Thus, currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface.
What is the Atlantic Ocean current called?
North Atlantic Current, also called North Atlantic Drift, part of a clockwise-setting ocean-current system in the North Atlantic Ocean, extending from southeast of the Grand Bank, off Newfoundland, Canada, to the Norwegian Sea, off northwestern Europe.
What causes deep ocean currents for kids?
The main causes for deep water currents are changes in water temperatures, the amount of salt in the water (this is called salinity), the density of the water, and the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. The gravitational pull of the moon and sun are also what causes tides in the ocean.
What are deep currents quizlet?
Deep currents. A measure of dissolved salts or solids in a solid. Salinity. The movement of deep, cold& nutrient rich water from the deep ocean rises to the surface & replaces warm surface water. Upwelling.
What causes ocean currents quizlet?
A directional movement of ocean water; surface currents result from steady winds over the ocean surface; deep ocean currents result from density variations due to temperature and salinity differences.
What causes wave?
Waves are most commonly caused by wind. Wind-driven waves, or surface waves, are created by the friction between wind and surface water. As wind blows across the surface of the ocean or a lake, the continual disturbance creates a wave crest.
Where do deep water formation occur?
Deep water formation takes place in a few localised areas: the Greenland-Norwegian Sea, the Labrador Sea, the Mediteranean Sea, the Wedell Sea, the Ross Sea. Spreading of deep waters (e.g., North Atlantic Deep Water, NADW, and Antarctic Bottom Water, AABW), mainly as deep western boundary currents (DWBC).
Where in the North Atlantic Ocean does deep water formation occur?
Greenland
Formation of North Atlantic Deep Water. The formation of North Atlantic Deep Water. Cold, dense, deep water forms in two areas of the northern North Atlantic in the Labrador Sea (between Greenland and Canada) and in the GIN Sea (between Greenland, Iceland and Norway).
What two forces primarily drive deep ocean currents?
Winds drive ocean currents in the upper 100 meters of the ocean’s surface. However, ocean currents also flow thousands of meters below the surface. These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the water’s density, which is controlled by temperature ( thermo) and salinity ( haline ). This process is known as thermohaline circulation.
What drives currents deep in the ocean?
– Trade winds are consistent winds that flow east to west between the equator and 30 degrees North and 30 degrees South. – Westerlies are winds that flow west to east in the middle latitudes. – Polar easterlies are winds that flow east to west between 50 degrees and 60 degrees north and south of the equator and the north and south pole.
How do deep currents affect the ocean?
They are able to rotate the surface water into the deep ocean. As a result, the deep ocean nutrients rise up to the ocean water. This ocean currents help in stabilising the ecosystem as well as providing the nutrients for the fishes in the coastlines.
What is deep ocean circulation is driven primarily by?
Deep ocean circulation. Deep ocean circulation is primarily driven by density differences. It is called thermohaline circulation, because density differences are due to temperature and salinity. Density differences are small and the flow velocity is low, of the order of a few cm/s.