Exam 6: Ocean Circulation

Scotland, Ireland has a maritime climate, warmed in part by the energy of tropical sunlight transported to high latitudes by the .

Water masses have distinct and often unique characteristics. What are the five common water masses in temperate and tropical latitudes?

An ENSO will deliver warm equatorial waters to the western Pacific around Christmastime.

The main force driving thermohaline circulation is .

The primary force responsible for surface currents is .

Drift bottles are useful in determining coastal circulation by tracking the path of surface currents.

Gyres move in a clockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere delivering surface currents along the East Coast and surface currents along the West Coast of continents.

During a non- El Niño  year, along the west coast of Central and South America.

The mass flow of ocean water that is driven by wind or gravity is referred to as ocean .

Oceanographers name water masses according to their relative position. In temperate and tropical latitudes, there are common water masses.

Thermohaline circulation is responsible for large-scale movements of ocean water and depends on both the salinity and the temperature of water.

The is a vast sampling network of nearly 4,000 independently drifting sensors.

If surface winds are blowing from the south toward the north in the Northern Hemisphere, which way will surface currents travel? Describe the Ekman spiral to answer the net movement of water.

Thermohaline circulation is a phenomenon.

Equatorial upwelling occurs in westward-flowing equatorial surface currents.

Surface water extends to a depth of about .

Which occurrence will produce upwelling near coasts?

The only ocean current that continues in an uninterrupted circle around the circumference of Earth without encountering land is the .

A transverse current is a .

Earth's rotation influences currents by a "force" known as .