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 ...
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
Jan 30, 2012 |
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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
Jan 24, 2012 |
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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
Jan 23, 2012 |
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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
Dec 21, 2011 |
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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.
Dec 20, 2011 |
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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.
Dec 02, 2011 |
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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
Dec 01, 2011 |
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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.
Nov 17, 2011 |
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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.
Oct 27, 2011 |
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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.
Oct 18, 2011 |
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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
Oct 05, 2011 |
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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
Aug 16, 2011 |
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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
Aug 02, 2011 |
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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.
Jul 04, 2011 |
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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.