ocean currents
gregladen | January 6, 2017You already know abut the North American Conveyor current. Briefly: The major ocean currents happen because the equatorial ocean is warmer, and since water (unlike land) can move (though not as fast as air) the dissipation of this heat across the surface of the Earth results in warm water moving, at the surface, north or south away from the Equator, where it loses its heat and finds it way back to the equatorial regions, usually as deeper, cooler water.
Conveniently, this process also involves increasing the salinity of the water far from the equator, as evaporating water becomes saltier.…
illconsidered | October 15, 2012Here is a pretty awesome video from NASA showing a 3D earth view of global ocean currents as they were from June 2005 to December 2007. It is fascinating to watch the behavior of both large and small features and how they interact. Notable for neighbors of the Atlantic ocean is the Gulf Stream bringing warm water from the Gulf of Mexico area north and east to keep the Queen warm in winter, and notable for the Antarctic ice sheets is the relative isolation, in terms of mixing, of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic climate in general.
It is constructed with a combination of observed and…