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Currents • What is a current? • Are there different types of currents? • What causes currents? • Why are currents important? • What are some major currents?

Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

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Page 1: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Currents

• What is a current?

• Are there different

types of currents?

• What causes currents?

• Why are currents important?

• What are some major currents?

Page 2: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Cool Current Facts

• The Gulf Stream current transports ten-thousand times as much water as the Mississippi river.

• The Gulf Stream flows as fast as 2m/sec or about 4 miles per hour.

• If caught in this current you could be carried almost a hundred miles in one day.

Page 3: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

What is a Current?

• A current is defined as a large mass of continuously moving ocean water.

Page 4: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

What Causes Currents

• Wind

• Density (salinity/temperature)

• Topography (coasts)

• Coriolis effect (earth’s rotation)

Page 5: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Coriolis Effect• The rotation of the earth

causes moving objects to veer to the right in the northern hemisphere, to the left in the southern hemisphere.

• Objects near the equator are moving much faster than objects near the poles.

Page 6: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Coriolis Effect

Page 7: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Types of Currents

• Surface (wind driven)• Deep (density driven)• Vertical (wind/density driven)

Page 8: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Surface Currents

• Most visible current

• Occur in the top 1 km of the ocean

• Produced by wind and redirected by land and the Coriolis effect

• This Results in a large circular rotation called a Gyre

Page 9: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Gyre

Page 10: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Create a Current Map

• Label the continents

• Label the oceans

• Using your knowledge of surface currents determine and label where the five major Gyres and one circumpolar current are located.

• Use arrows to show the direction of flow.

• Label the major currents.

Page 11: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Major Currents

• California Current• Kuroshio Current• North and South Equatorial Current

• West Wind Drift• Gulf Stream• Peru Current

Page 12: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Global Currents

Page 13: Currents What is a current? Are there different types of currents? What causes currents? Why are currents important? What are some major currents?

Thanks to:

Images:http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean/motion/currents1.htm

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/coriolis_effect.htmlwww.jimloy.com/science/ shower.htm

www.ldeo.columbia.edu/ ~jean/research.html

Information:http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean/motion/currents1.htm

http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/student/phillips/

http://www.whoi.edu/coastal-briefs/Coastal-Brief-94-05.html

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_currents_1.html

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/coriolis_effect.html