Oceanography Surface Current Patterns Essay

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Earth's Ocean Surface Current Patterns And How They Are Produced

The major ocean surface currents vary in speed, size, and depth by location, but generally help to dictate much of the weather patterns coming from the ocean's surface. This is due to the transfer of heat from one location to another on the planet. These current patterns create larger swirls of mixing currents in some locations called gyres. One of the largest gyres in the world, the Pacific Gyre is located in the waters between the cost of California and Hawai'i (McWilliams and Restrepo, 1999). In other locations, currents form a connective band of moving water between oceans and seas where creatures are carried. Many of these currents mix downward and influence deeper currents as well (Mills, 2011).

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Surface currents move and are created by the sun due to unequal heating of the Earth's surface. More specifically, these patterns are produced primarily by wind. This means that the prevailing winds, which are generally clock-wise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere help to dictate the surface flows. These rotational characteristics are the result of the Coriolis Force (Mills, 2011). Currents that are specifically created by wind are called Ekman flow. Other forces that influence surface current can also include geostrophic currents, which flow from areas of high to low pressure under the ocean's surface. These typically occur in the Polar Regions where water is cooled enough to gain a higher density than its mixing currents, sending it downward (McWilliams and Restrepo,….....

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"Oceanography Surface Current Patterns" (2011, October 19) Retrieved June 15, 2026, from
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"Oceanography Surface Current Patterns" 19 October 2011. Web.15 June. 2026. <
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"Oceanography Surface Current Patterns", 19 October 2011, Accessed.15 June. 2026,
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