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Along with this, if the seafloor spreading rate in an ocean basin increases, then the average depth in that ocean basin decreases and therefore its volume decreases (and vice versa). This results in global eustatic sea level rise (fall) because the Earth is not expanding. Two main drivers of sea level variation over geologic time are then ...
A baroclinic instability is a fluid dynamical instability of fundamental importance in the atmosphere and ocean. It can lead to the formation of transient mesoscale eddies, with a horizontal scale of 10-100 km. [1] [2] In contrast, flows on the largest scale in the ocean are described as ocean currents, the largest scale eddies are mostly created by shearing of two ocean currents and static ...
The waters of the Oyashio Current originate in the Arctic Ocean and flow southward via the Bering Sea, passing through the Bering Strait and transporting cold water from the Arctic Sea into the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk. It collides with the Kuroshio Current off the eastern shore of Japan to form the North Pacific Current (or Drift).
As the temperature continues to drop, the water on the surface may get cold enough to freeze and the lake/ocean begins to ice over. A new thermocline develops where the densest water (4 °C (39 °F)) sinks to the bottom, and the less dense water (water that is approaching the freezing point) rises to the top.
Mid-ocean ridge basalt is a tholeiitic basalt and is low in incompatible elements. [17] [18] Hydrothermal vents fueled by magmatic and volcanic heat are a common feature at oceanic spreading centers. [19] [20] A feature of the elevated ridges is their relatively high heat flow values, of about 1–10 μcal/cm 2 s, [21] or roughly 0.04–0.4 W/m 2.
Aquatic sills are common in fjords, limiting their water exchange with the ocean. After the last ice age , approximately 18,000 years ago, continental glaciers extended to the continental shelves and created U-shaped glacial valleys , with long narrow openings that rise upward near the outer shelf, thereby creating sills.
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 metres (9,800 and 19,700 ft).Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface.
Yellow and red areas indicate falling as mantle material moved away from these areas in order to supply the rising areas, and because of the collapse of the forebulges around the ice sheets. This layered beach at Bathurst Inlet , Nunavut is an example of post-glacial rebound after the last Ice Age.