News tagged with ocean currents

Slowing ocean current caused Earth to spin faster

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people probably didn’t notice it, but back in 2009, the Earth spun around on its axis a tiny bit faster than usual, making for some slightly shorter days. It only happened for a ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created 12 hours ago | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

Warming in the Tasman Sea a global warming hot spot

Oceanographers have identified a series of ocean hotspots around the world generated by strengthening wind systems that have driven oceanic currents, including the East Australian Current, polewards beyond their known boundaries.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Scientists aboard Iberian coast ocean drilling expedition report early findings

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mediterranean bottom currents and the sediment deposits they leave behind offer new insights into global climate change, the opening and closing of ocean circulation gateways and locations ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Huge pool of Arctic fresh water could cool Europe

British scientists have discovered an enormous dome of fresh water in the western Arctic Ocean. They think it may result from strong Arctic winds accelerating a great clockwise ocean circulation called the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Huge Antarctic iceberg foils centenary plans

An iceberg nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) long was Wednesday preventing tourist ships from reaching Antarctica to mark the centenary of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's epic polar voyage.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Dutch unveil plan in war against the sea: a sandbar

In its age-old war to keep back the sea, low-lying Netherlands has dumped sand onto a surface larger than 200 football fields just off the coast -- and will wait for nature to do the rest.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Baby turtles don't just go with the flow

At just a few centimeters long, hatchling loggerhead turtles may seem powerless to resist being swept around the Atlantic Ocean by powerful currents.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 02, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Plunge in CO2 put the freeze on Antarctica

Plunge in CO2 put the freeze on AntarcticaAtmospheric carbon dioxide levels plunged by 40% before and during the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet 34 million years ago, according to a new study. The finding helps solv ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 24 | with audio podcast

Fukushima radiation 'mostly fell in sea': study

Most of the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant dropped into the ocean and began circling the planet, Japanese researchers said Thursday.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Fukushima nuke pollution in sea 'was world's worst'

France's nuclear monitor said on Thursday that the amount of caesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 27, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 17

More than chance determines future for baby fish

(PhysOrg.com) -- Baby fish may be able to resist ocean currents and influence how and where they move, says a Victoria University researcher, although he is yet to work out how they do it.

Biology / Ecology

created Oct 18, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Long-lost Lake Agassiz offers clues to climate change

Not long ago, geologically speaking, a now-vanished lake covered a huge expanse of today's Canadian prairie. As big as Hudson Bay, the lake was fed by melting glaciers as they receded at the end of the last ice age. At its ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Tsunami observed by radar

The tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11 was picked up by high-frequency radar in California and Japan as it swept toward their coasts, according to U.S. and Japanese scientists. This is the first time that a tsunami ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A new kind of carbon explorer rides out the storm

Carbon Explorer floats follow ocean currents, yo-yoing back and forth in the first kilometer below the surface of the sea, then resurfacing to report their data and receive new instructions via satellite. ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 02, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Specialized seeds can really float your boat

A new artificial surface inspired by floating seeds, which could provide an alternative to the toxic paints currently used to prevent fouling on ship hulls, has been developed by German scientists.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jul 04, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Ocean current

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon the water, such as the Earth's rotation, wind, temperature, salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun. Depth contours, shoreline configurations and interaction with other currents influence a current's direction and strength.

Ocean currents can flow for thousands of kilometers, and together they create the great flow of the global conveyor belt which plays a dominant part in determining the climate of many of the Earth’s regions. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream, which makes northwest Europe much more temperate than any other region at the same latitude. Another example is the Hawaiian Islands, where the climate is cooler (sub-tropical) than the tropical latitudes in which they are located, because of the effect of the California Current.

For more information about Ocean current, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.