Energy redistribution from the Equator to the Poles by Ocean Currents

Question 1

What are ocean currents?

Answer 1

Large scale movements of water caused by differences in water density (density depends on water temperature and salinity)

Question 2

What are currents affected by?

Answer 2

Surface winds, the position of land masses and other currents

Question 3

What do ocean currents transfer?

Answer 3

Heat energy from warmer to cooler regions

Question 4

What do warm and cool ocean currents do?

Answer 4

Warm ocean currents - raise air temperature, which warms the land nearby
Cool ocean currents - lower air temperature, which cools the land nearby

Question 5

What do ocean currents form?

Answer 5

Giant loops that travel clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Southern hemisphere

Question 6

Why do ocean currents from giant loops that travel in a particular direction?

Answer 6

Due to surface winds, e.g. trade winds push water west along the equator, and westerlies push water east between 30° and 60° North and South

Question 7

What does the Gulf Stream carry?

Answer 7

warm water from the Caribbean Sea along the east coast of America and across the Atlantic to Western Europe

Question 8

Which area does the Gulf Stream keep much warmer that it would otherwise be?

Answer 8

Western Europe

Question 9

What happens to water in the Gulf Stream in the northern hemisphere?

Answer 9

It cools and becomes more dense. Some of this water sinks and is carried back to the equator by the Canary Current, which cools the west coast of Africa