Gyres
What is an ocean gyre?
This circular system of ocean currents is driven by wind patterns and the Earth's rotation.
What is the Coriolis Affect?
The Coriolis effect makes winds and currents curve because the Earth is spinning.
What are surface currents?
These currents flow along the surface of the ocean and are primarily driven by wind.
What does hot air do?
Rise, rise, rise!
This type of marine organism plays a major role in the biological pump, transferring nutrients from the surface waters to deeper layers of the ocean through its dead bodies and feces.
Zooplankton
How many major ocean gyre are there on Earth?
What are trade winds?
Trade winds are steady winds that blow from east to west near the equator.
What is the thermohaline circulation?
The movement of this large-scale ocean current, known for regulating Earth's climate, is part of the global conveyor belt.
What is temperature?
This is the measure of the average kinetic energy of particles in a substance.
This process occurs when deep, nutrient-rich waters rise to the surface, often leading to an increase in biological productivity along coastlines.
Upwelling
What greatly determines the gyres/wind?
The Coriolis Effect
What are westerlies/easterlies?
Westerlies are winds that blow from the west to the east in the middle latitudes, while easterlies blow from the east to the west near the equator.
What is the Gulf Stream?
This powerful current, which flows along the eastern coast of North America, is part of the North Atlantic Gyre.
The surface temperature of the ocean is mainly influenced by this factor.
Sunlight
This process occurs when surface waters sink due to high salinity or low temperature, often contributing to the movement of oxygen-rich waters to deeper ocean layers.
Downwelling
What gyre is the Pacific Garbage Patch located in?
The North Pacific Gyre
When is air pressure low/high?
It is low during stormy weather (hurricanes) and high when the weather is calm.
What are cold ocean currents?
These currents, like the California Current, bring cold water from the poles to the equator.
What are the tropics, temperate zones, and polar zones?
These are the three broad temperature zones of the Earth based on latitude: tropical, temperate, and polar.
This nutrient is crucial for the growth of phytoplankton and is often a limiting factor in ocean productivity.
Nitrogen
What are all the names of the main ocean gyres?
North Atlantic Gyre, South Atlantic Gyre, North Pacific Gyre, South Pacific Gyre, Indian Ocean Gyre.
four!!
What is an upwelling?
This ocean phenomenon occurs when winds push surface waters away from the shore, allowing cold, nutrient-rich water to rise.
What is the deep ocean (or the thermocline)?
The temperature of ocean water decreases as you move from the surface to this part of the ocean.
This essential nutrient, along with nitrogen, is often found in limited supply in many ocean waters and is necessary for phytoplankton growth.
Phosphorous