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Ocean Bowl > Ocean Currents > Flashcards

Ocean Currents Flashcards

1
Q

Define Deep Currents

A

High density caused by temperature and salinity differences at the surface

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2
Q

What are the three methods to indirectly measure water currents?

A

Internal density distribution, TOEX/Posidon satellite to determine ocean bulges, Doppler flow meter to transmit low frequency sound signals

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3
Q

What two methods directly measure ocean currents?

A

A floating device is released and tracked through time, a fixed contraption measures flow through a propeller

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4
Q

How much of the wind’s energy is transferred to the ocean surface?

A

2 percent

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5
Q

What pattern would surface currents follow if there were not any continents on Earth?

A

The wind belts

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6
Q

Surface currents occur within and above the _____.

A

pychnocline (layer of rapidly changing density)

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7
Q

How deep do surface currents exist?

A

One Kilometer

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8
Q

How much of the world’s ocean water is affected by surface currents?

A

Ten percent

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9
Q

What currents are encouraged by the trade winds?

A

The N or S equatorial currents

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10
Q

What are western boundary currents and what contributes to them?

A

Currents traveling along the western current of their basin, Coriolis effect

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11
Q

What current flows south on the eastern edge of South America?

A

Brazil Current

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12
Q

What current flows north along the eastern edge of North America?

A

Gulf Stream

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13
Q

What current is warm and cold and exist on the southern edge of Alaska?

A

Alaskan Current

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14
Q

What current flows North along the western coast of South America?

A

Peru Current

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15
Q

Which current flows South along the western coast of North America?

A

California Current

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16
Q

What current flows North Across the northern Atlantic and is warm?

A

N. Atlantic Current

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17
Q

What current flows north up the lower eastern coast of South America and is cold?

A

Falkland Current

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18
Q

The Canary Current flows where and is what type of current?

A

South off of the coast of Europe and northern coast of Africa, cold

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19
Q

What current flows north off of the southwestern coast of Africa and is cold?

A

Benguela Current

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20
Q

What current flows south on the eastern coast of Africa and is warm?

A

Agulhas Current

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21
Q

What warm currents exist in the southern part of the Indian Ocean?

A

N. Equatorial Current flowing West, E. Equatorial Current flowing East, S. Equatorial Current flowing West

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22
Q

What current flows near the western coast of Australia coming from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and goes North, and is cold?

A

W. Australian Current

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23
Q

What current flows south off of western coast of Australia and is warm?

A

Leeuwin Current

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24
Q

What current flows south near the eastern coast of Australia and is warm?

A

E. Australian Current

25
Q

What current flows north off of the coast of Asia and is warm?

A

Kuroshio Current

26
Q

What current flows south off of the northern coast of Asia and comes from the Arctic cold waters and is cold?

A

Oyashio Current

27
Q

What is a subpolar Gyre?

A

currents that rotate opposite the adjacent subtropical gyre

28
Q

The equatorial, western boundary, prevailing westerly, and eastern boundary currents combine to create a ______.

A

Subtropical Gyre

29
Q

Who observed that the Arctic Ocean ice moved 20 to 40 degrees to the right of the wind blowing across the surface and on what voyage was he on?

A

Fridtjof Nansen, Fram

30
Q

Who developed a circulation model called the Ekman spiral?

A

V. Walfrid Ekman a Swedish physicist

31
Q

What is the Ekman spiral caused by?

A

the wind blowing across the surface and is modified by the Coriolis effect.

32
Q

The _____ describes the speed and direction of flow of surface waters at various depths.

A

Ekman spiral

33
Q

The movement of water 90 degrees to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and 90 degrees to the left in the Southern Hemisphere is the?

A

Ekman Transport

34
Q

Western Intensification is what?

A

The phenomena that as a result of the western boundary of the subtropical gyres the western currents are faster and narrower than their eastern counterparts

35
Q

_____ is the vertical movement of cold, deep, nutrient-rich water to the surface

A

Upwelling

36
Q

_____ is the vertical movement of surface water to deeper parts of the ocean

A

Downwelling

37
Q

_____ is dominated by the movement of water masses in the southern Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific.

A

Antarctic circulation

38
Q

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is also called the what?

A

West Wind Drift

39
Q

The East Wind Drift is what?

A

a surface current propelled by the polar easerlies

40
Q

The Antarctic Divergence is caused by what two surface currents?

A

East Wind Drift and Antarctic Circumpolar Current

41
Q

T or F: The Antarctic Divergence as an abundance of Marine life in the Southern Hemisphere?

A

True

42
Q

The Gulf Stream gradually merges eastward with the water of what sea?

A

Sargasso

43
Q

Snake-like bends in the current that often disconnect from the Gulf Stream and form large rotating masses of water are called?

A

Meanders, Vortexes, Eddies, or Rings

44
Q

What current plays a large role in moderating climate in the North Atlantic?

A

Gulf Stream

45
Q

What is the name of the atmospheric circulation cell in the South Pacific?

A

Walker Circulation Cell

46
Q

On the pacific edge of South America what is the climate due to the high pressure and sinking air?

A

Clear, fair, and dry

47
Q

The Ekman transport moves water away from shore, causing upwelling of cool nutrient rich water. Where does this occur most famously?

A

Along the Peru Current

48
Q

What warm-current phenomena occurs next to the coast of Peru every few years?

A

El Nino otherwise known as Southern Oscillation Conditions

49
Q

What cold-current phenomena occurs next to the coast of Peru every few years?

A

La Nina

50
Q

What phenomena are oceanographers recently associating with El Nino and La Nina?

A

Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)

51
Q

How long does the PDO last?

A

20 to 30 years

52
Q

The Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) was initiated to study what?

A

El Nino events

53
Q

Deep ocean circulation is also known as?

A

Thermohaline

54
Q

A what can be used to identify deep-water masses based on their characteristics?

A

temperature-salinity diagram (T-S)

55
Q

The densest part of the ocean is where and what?

A

Antarctic Bottom Water

56
Q

What model represents the circulation of Antarctic and Atlantic water?

A

Conveyor-Belt Circulation

57
Q

T or F: Cold water can dissolve more gases than warm water

A

True

58
Q

From 1954 to 2004 the temperature of the surface water has increased by how much?

A

An average of .06 degrees celsius

Ocean Bowl (23 decks)

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