Latitude & Circulation
At 15°N, the dominant surface wind band is this.
What are the Northeast Trade Winds?
There are this many convection cells per hemisphere.
What are three?
The underwater feature marking divergent plate boundaries.
What are mid-ocean ridges?
Subtropical gyres rotate clockwise in this hemisphere.
What is the Northern Hemisphere?
In the Northern Hemisphere, Ekman transport moves this direction relative to wind.
What is 90° to the right?
At 45°S, the dominant wind band is this.
What are the Westerlies?
The cell between 0° and 30° latitude.
What is the Hadley Cell?
The underwater feature marking convergent boundaries.
What are trenches?
The fast, narrow, warm current on the western side of ocean basins.
What is a Western Boundary Current?
The rotation of water layers with depth due to wind and Coriolis is called this.
What is the Ekman Spiral?
Coriolis strength increases as you move toward this location.
What are the poles?
Rising air and heavy precipitation dominate this latitude zone.
What is the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone)?
This technology allowed scientists to discover mid-ocean ridges.
What is sonar (echo sounding)?
The cold current along the eastern side of the North Pacific.
What is the California Current?
When Ekman transport causes water to pile up in the center of a gyre, this occurs.
What is convergence and downwelling?
A ship at 30°N is likely in this pressure zone.
What are the Horse Latitudes (subtropical high pressure)?
Descending air and dry climates are found near this latitude.
What is 30° (Horse Latitudes)?
The abyssal plain sits at approximately this average ocean depth.
What is about 4,000 meters?
This Atlantic current is a warm western boundary current.
What is the Gulf Stream?
Upwelling is most likely along a west coast when wind blows this direction.
What is equatorward (north-to-south in the Northern Hemisphere)?
The latitudinal gradient in solar energy exists primarily because of this geometric reason.
What is Earth’s curvature and sun angle?
This process drives convection cells and is based on density differences.
What is warm air rising and cold air sinking?
The missing component in Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis.
What was a mechanism to move continents?
Gyres are lopsided because of this intensification effect.
What is western boundary intensification?
Garbage patches form because Ekman transport causes this vertical motion at gyre centers.
What is downwelling?