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An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. [1] Depth contours, shoreline configurations, and interactions with other currents influence a current's direction and ...
The water parcel will overshoot its original equilibrium position and this disturbance will set off an internal gravity wave. Munk (1981) notes, "Gravity waves in the ocean's interior are as common as waves at the sea surface-perhaps even more so, for no one has ever reported an interior calm." [1]
Humboldt Current. The Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north along the western coast of South America. [1] It is an eastern boundary current flowing in the direction of the equator, and extends 500–1,000 km (310–620 mi) offshore.
It can be further simplified by realizing that, in basin-scale ocean gyres, the relative vorticity is small, meaning that local changes in vorticity cannot account for the decrease in . [5] Thus, the water parcel must change its planetary vorticity accordingly. The only way to decrease the planetary vorticity is by moving the water parcel ...
The opposite is applicable when Ekman divergence is induced, leading to Ekman absorption (suction) and a subsequent, water column stretching and poleward return flow, a characteristic of sub-polar gyres. This return flow, as shown by Stommel, [1] occurs in a meridional current, concentrated near the western boundary of an ocean basin. To ...
This is a major process in the ocean and without vertical migration it wouldn't be nearly as efficient. The deep ocean gets most of its nutrients from the higher water column when they sink down in the form of marine snow. This is made up of dead or dying animals and microbes, fecal matter, sand and other inorganic material.
A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. [1] Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms (/ ˈ m eɪ l s t r ɒ m,-r ə m / MAYL-strom, -strəm). Vortex is the proper term for a whirlpool that ...
Swash. Swash, or forewash in geography, is a turbulent layer of water that washes up on the beach after an incoming wave has broken. The swash action can move beach materials up and down the beach, which results in the cross-shore sediment exchange. [1]