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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 eustatic sea level (from Greek εὖ eû, "good" and στάσις stásis, "standing") is the distance from the center of the Earth to the sea surface. [1] [2] An increase of the eustatic sea level can be generated by decreasing glaciation, increasing spreading rates of the mid-ocean ridges or increasing the number of mid-oceanic ridges.
Isopycnal mixing is when surface waters moving into the interior of the ocean typically run horizontally, along the isopycnal layers, settling into their correct density-dependent layer [2]. This process is important for ventilating the ocean with oxygen. Diapycnal mixing is the movement of water by either upwelling or downwelling.
Ocean dynamics define and describe the flow of water within the oceans. Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above the thermocline), and deep ocean. Ocean dynamics has traditionally been investigated by sampling from instruments in situ. [1]
Ocean stratification is the natural separation of an ocean's water into horizontal layers by density. This is generally stable stratification , because warm water floats on top of cold water, and heating is mostly from the sun, which reinforces that arrangement.
The region of rapid density change is known as the pycnocline, and it acts as a barrier to vertical water circulation; thus it also affects the vertical distribution of certain chemicals which play a role in the biology of the seas. The sharp gradients in temperature and density also may act as a restriction to vertical movements of animals. [6]
Open ocean wind circulation can lead to gyre-like structures of piled up sea surface water resulting in horizontal gradients of sea surface height. [1] This pile up of water causes the water to have a downward flow and suction, due to gravity and mass balance. Ekman pumping downward in the central ocean is a consequence of this convergence of ...
At the Indian Ocean, a vertical exchange of a lower layer of cold and salty water from the Atlantic and the warmer and fresher upper ocean water from the tropical Pacific occurs, in what is known as overturning. In the Pacific Ocean, the rest of the cold and salty water from the Atlantic undergoes haline forcing, and becomes warmer and fresher ...