Surface currents are controlled by three factors: global winds, the Coriolis effect, and continental deflections. surface create surface currents in the ocean.
What is the cause of surface currents?
Surface currents in the ocean are driven by global wind systems that are fueled by energy from the sun. Patterns of surface currents are determined by wind direction, Coriolis forces from the Earth’s rotation, and the position of landforms that interact with the currents.
What are the three main causes of surface currents?
Surface currents are created by three things: global wind patterns, the rotation of the Earth, and the shape of the ocean basins.
What 4 factors create surface currents?
At the surface, currents are mainly driven by four factors—wind, the Sun’s radiation, gravity, and Earth’s rotation. All of these factors are interconnected. … Gravity pulls the water away from hills and toward valleys and Earth’s rotation steers the moving water.
What are the 5 causes of currents?
Causes of Ocean Currents
- Solar heating. it causes water to expand.
- Wind. The Wind is responsible for ocean currents as it blows the water on the surface, causing the currents.
- Gravity. Gravity tends to pull items towards the surface of the earth.
- The salinity of the water.
- Temperature.
- Coriolis effect.
- Underwater earthquakes.
What causes surface currents for kids?
Surface currents are usually caused by the wind. As the wind changes, the current may change as well. Currents are also influenced by the rotation of the Earth called the Coriolis effect. This causes currents to flow clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
What causes surface currents quizlet?
What causes surface currents to move? It is caused by wind action, Earth’s spin, and the shape of the continents. Also, the speed, direction, and volume of water can be affected by the uneven heating of the atmosphere. The force of wind blowing over the top of the Earth.
What are surface currents?
Surface currents are currents that are located in the upper 1,300 feet of the ocean, as opposed to deep in the ocean. Currents are simply how water moves from one place to another, but they can be very strong and forceful. Surface currents are affects by gravity, wind, the Coriolis Effect, and continental deflection.
What is the Coriolis effect caused by?
Because the Earth rotates on its axis, circulating air is deflected toward the right in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere. This deflection is called the Coriolis effect.
What are the major surface currents?
Surface currents vary considerably in strength, width, temperature and depth. The five most notable gyres are as follows: Indian Ocean Gyre, North Atlantic Gyre, North Pacific Gyre, South Atlantic Gyre, and South Pacific Gyre.
What are two factors that cause currents?
Four Factors That Create Ocean Currents
- Wind. Wind is the single biggest factor in the creation of surface currents.
- Water Density. Another major factor in the creation of currents is water density, caused by the amount of salt in a body of water, and its temperature.
- Ocean Bottom Topography.
- Coriolis Effect.
How do the causes of surface and deepwater currents differ?
How do the causes of surface and deepwater currents differ? Surface currents are caused by wind; deepwater currents are caused by differences in water density. Wind and ocean currents do not move in straight lines; instead, they curve as they move across the planet.
What are two factors that cause changes in the motion of surface currents like the Gulf Stream?
Wind direction, the spin of Earth, and differences in temperature contribute to currents. Currents occur at the surface of and deep within the ocean. The Coriolis effect contributes to the direction of current flow. Wind direction, the spin of Earth, and differences in temperature contribute to currents.
What are the causes of currents Class 11?
Primary Forces: The primary forces that influence the currents are:
- Heating by solar energy: Heating by solar energy causes the water to expand.
- Wind: Wind blowing on the surface of the ocean pushes the water to move.
- Gravity: Gravity tends to pull the water down the pile and create gradient variation.
What are ocean currents 7?
(vi) What are ocean currents? Answer: The streams of water flowing constantly on the ocean surface in a definite direction are called ocean currents. The ocean currents may be warm or cold.
What are types of oceans?
The five oceans are connected and are actually one huge body of water, called the global ocean or just the ocean.
- The Global Ocean. The five oceans from smallest to largest are: the Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic and Pacific.
- The Arctic Ocean.
- The Southern Ocean.
- The Indian Ocean.
- The Atlantic Ocean.
- The Pacific Ocean.
What causes swells in the ocean?
Swells appear in the ocean when the wind transfers its energy from the air into the water. Every swell starts as small ripples on the ocean surface, and as they travel, the energy builds up and the swell will start to grow in size before it finally breaks into actual waves.
What causes ocean waves and currents?
Waves are most commonly caused by wind. Wind-driven waves, or surface waves, are created by the friction between wind and surface water. As wind blows across the surface of the ocean or a lake, the continual disturbance creates a wave crest.
What causes ocean waves to form quizlet?
Ocean waves get their energy from wind blowing across the surface of the water. When the wind contacts the water, some of its energy is transferred. When does a wave cut cliff form and is it from erosion or deposition?
What are the two causes of density in deep current waters?
These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the water’s density, which is controlled by temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline). This process is known as thermohaline circulation. In the Earth’s polar regions ocean water gets very cold, forming sea ice.
What causes seasons quizlet?
What causes Seasons? On Earth the seasons are primarily caused by the changing the “directness” of the sunlight over the course of a year, which is due in turn to the Earth’s tilt. -A secondary effect is the amount of time the Sun spends above the horizon in different seasons.
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