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Surface oceanic currents are driven by wind currents, the large scale prevailing winds drive major persistent ocean currents, and seasonal or occasional winds drive currents of similar persistence to the winds that drive them, [6] and the Coriolis effect plays a major role in their development. [7]
A subsurface ocean current is an oceanic current that runs beneath surface currents. [1] Examples include the Equatorial Undercurrents of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, the California Undercurrent, [2] and the Agulhas Undercurrent, [3] the deep thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic, and bottom gravity currents near Antarctica.
It's good to know how currents are formed in the ocean, as they can be quite dangerous!
A Wind generated current is a flow in a body of water that is generated by wind friction on its surface. Wind can generate surface currents on water bodies of any size. The depth and strength of the current depend on the wind strength and duration, and on friction and viscosity losses, [1] but are limited to about 400 m depth by the mechanism, and to lesser depths where the water is shallower. [2]
Effect of temperature and salinity upon sea water density maximum and sea water freezing temperature. It has long been known that wind can drive ocean currents, but only at the surface. [12] In the 19th century, some oceanographers suggested that the convection of heat could drive deeper currents.
Ekman transport is the net motion of fluid as the result of a balance between Coriolis and turbulent drag forces. In the picture above, the wind blowing North in the northern hemisphere creates a surface stress and a resulting Ekman spiral is found below it in the water column.
Surface currents only affect the top few hundred metres of the sea, but there are also large-scale flows in the ocean depths caused by the movement of deep water masses. A main deep ocean current flows through all the world's oceans and is known as the thermohaline circulation or global conveyor belt.
This current must be in thermal wind balance with the density gradient between the chimney’s interior and exterior. The width of the rim current’s region and its baroclinic zone will initially be of the order of the Rossby radius of deformation. [12] [14] The existence of the rim current plays an important role for the chimney’s collapse.