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What Are The Four Factors That Influence Ocean Currents

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 Describe four factors that influence ocean currents. o Wind: it is the single strongest factor in the creation of surface currents. Strong winds moving across an expanse of water move the surface of the water. The strong winds are not random breezes. o Water Density: This is caused by the amount of salt in a body of water and its temperature. Water with higher salinity, or colder water, is more dense and likely to sink. Sinking water pushes the water below it up. The combination of sinking and rising in the same area causes a current. o Ocean Bottom Topography: Water contours to the topography of the ocean floor or bed. If the ocean bottom “drops out,” like in a valley or trench, the moving water will move downward. If there is a ride in …show more content…

Although your motion relative to the sea floor is ONLY poleward, you have a certain eastward speed inherited from the earth’s rotation. As you move poleward, you keep this eastward speed, because you are not rigidly attached to the sea floor. But you are moving into a region where the eastward speed of the sea floor itself is SMALLER, because the latitude curlces are smaller. So your eastward speed is now greater than that of the sea floor, and you start drifting towards the east, relative to the sea floor. So you started moving poleward, but you are now moving both poleward and eastward. If you were in the N hemisphere going north, you are now going NE, and If you were in the S hemisphere, you are now going SE. Similarly, if you start off by moving equatorward , your eastward speed soon becomes to SMALL for your new latitude, so you start drifting west. If you were in N hemisphere going south, you are now going SW If you were in S hemisphere going north, you are now going NW The arguments about how eastward motion turns into NE or SE motion or how westward motion turns into NW or SW motion are a bit harder to grasp, but the two arguments above give you a basic understanding of why ocean current motion in the N hemisphere is clockwise and in the S hemisphere is

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