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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 ...
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 ...
Water carried into the mantle eventually returns to the surface in eruptions at mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. [131]: 646 Estimates of the amount of water in the mantle range from 1 ⁄ 4 to 4 times the water in the ocean. [131]: 630–634 The deep carbon cycle is the movement of carbon through the Earth's mantle and core.
Over time, the water returns to the ocean, to continue the water cycle. The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle. The ocean holds "97% of the total water on the planet; 78% of global precipitation occurs over the ocean, and it is the source of 86% of global evaporation". [2]
Diel vertical migration (DVM), also known as diurnal vertical migration, is a pattern of movement used by some organisms, such as copepods, living in the ocean and in lakes. The adjective "diel" ( IPA : / ˈ d aɪ . ə l / , / ˈ d iː . əl / ) comes from Latin : diēs , lit.
The cyclonic winds cause a divergence in the surface water in the Ekman layer, that turn requires upwelling of deeper water to maintain continuity. [15] Artificial upwelling is produced by devices that use ocean wave energy or ocean thermal energy conversion to pump water to the surface. Ocean wind turbines are also known to produce upwellings ...
The Ekman spiral is an arrangement of ocean currents: the directions of horizontal current appear to twist as the depth changes. [1] The oceanic wind driven Ekman spiral is the result of a force balance created by a shear stress force, Coriolis force and the water drag. This force balance gives a resulting current of the water different from ...
The world's largest ocean gyres. Western boundary currents may themselves be divided into sub-tropical or low-latitude western boundary currents.Sub-tropical western boundary currents are warm, deep, narrow, and fast-flowing currents that form on the west side of ocean basins due to western intensification.