Readers ask: What happens to an ocean current when it hits a continent?

What happens to an ocean current when it meets a continent?

When a surface current meets a continent, the current is deflected (changes direction).

What are the effects of ocean current?

Ocean currents act much like a conveyor belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. Thus, ocean currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface.

What 3 things affect ocean currents?

Ocean currents can be caused by wind, density differences in water masses caused by temperature and salinity variations, gravity, and events such as earthquakes or storms. Currents are cohesive streams of seawater that circulate through the ocean.

What causes ocean surface currents?

Surface currents

Large-scale surface ocean currents are driven by global wind systems that are fueled by energy from the sun. These currents transfer heat from the tropics to the polar regions, influencing local and global climate.

Which current is the largest in all the world’s oceans?

The world’s largest ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (21,000 km in length) moves perpetually eastward here and transports 130,000,000 m³ of water per second—100 times the flow of all the world’s rivers combined.

What current type is associated with the sinking of colder heavier waters?

The warmer water is, the more likely it is to rise towards the surface. So, when water is both cold and very dense, it will sink to the bottom of the ocean. This motion, with heavier, colder water constantly replacing warm, less salty water, causes the deep water currents.

What 3 Important Things do ocean currents do?

10 Important Facts related to the Ocean Currents

• The continuous flow of ocean currents is a natural effort to bring a horizontal heat balance.
• Warm currents bring rain to the coastal areas because they supply moisture to the winds.
• Cold polar currents bring large ice-bergs which are a source of fresh water.
• Ocean currents act as the distributing agents of nutrients.

How do the oceans affect climate?

The oceans influence climate by absorbing solar radiation and releasing heat needed to drive the atmospheric circulation, by releasing aerosols that influence cloud cover, by emitting most of the water that falls on land as rain, by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it for years to millions of

What are the 5 major ocean currents?

There are five major gyres: the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the North Pacific, the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean Gyre, see figure 1. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is situated in the Southern Ocean and constantly circles around Antarctica because there are no land masses to interrupt the currents.

Why is ocean water salty?

Ocean salt primarily comes from rocks on land. Rocks on land are the major source of salts dissolved in seawater. Rainwater that falls on land is slightly acidic, so it erodes rocks. This releases ions that are carried away to streams and rivers that eventually feed into the ocean.

What 4 Things drive currents?

Four Factors That Create Ocean Currents

• Wind. Wind is the single biggest factor in the creation of surface currents.
• Water Density. Another major factor in the creation of currents is water density, caused by the amount of salt in a body of water, and its temperature.
• Ocean Bottom Topography.
• Coriolis Effect.

How do ocean currents affect humans?

Ocean currents regulate climate and prevent it from becoming overly extreme. People have used ocean currents to explore the Earth. Ocean currents affect the shipping industry, commercial and recreational fishing, and recreational navigation for boats.

What are the major surface currents?

Water in the surface currents is pushed in the direction of the major wind belts:

• trade winds: east to west between the Equator and 30^oN and 30^oS.
• westerlies: west to east in the middle latitudes.
• polar easterlies: east to west between 50^o and 60^o north and south of the Equator and the north and south pole.

Which surface ocean current has the warmest water?

The North Atlantic Drift has is one of the world’s warmest waters. The North Atlantic Current, also known as North Atlantic Drift and North Atlantic Sea Movement, is a powerful warm western boundary current that extends the Gulf Stream north-eastward.

What would happen if the ocean currents stopped?

If it continues to slow, that could have profound consequences for Earth’s inhabitants. Studies suggest it would mean much colder winters and hotter summers in Europe, changing rainfall patterns in the tropics, and warmer water building up along the U.S. coast that can fuel sea level rise and destructive storms.