News tagged with ocean circulation
Sea Level Rise Due to Global Warming Poses Threat to New York City
(PhysOrg.com) -- Global warming is expected to cause the sea level along the northeastern U.S. coast to rise almost twice as fast as global sea levels during this century, putting New York City at greater ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (139) |
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Melting Greenland ice sheets may threaten Northeast United States, Canada
Melting of the Greenland ice sheet this century may drive more water than previously thought toward the already threatened coastlines of New York, Boston, Halifax, and other cities in the northeastern United ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 27, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (72) |
18
Ocean Circulation Doesn't Work As Expected
(PhysOrg.com) -- The familiar model of Atlantic ocean currents that shows a discrete "conveyor belt" of deep, cold water flowing southward from the Labrador Sea is probably all wet.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 13, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (29) |
52
Long debate ended over cause, demise of ice ages -- may also help predict future
Researchers have largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years - they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 06, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (24) |
63
Dramatic ocean circulation changes revealed
The unusually cold weather this winter has been caused by a change in the winds. Instead of the typical westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents, cold northerly Arctic winds are influencing ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 14, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (22) |
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What caused a giant arrow-shaped cloud on Saturn's moon Titan?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Why does Titan, Saturn's largest moon, have what looks like an enormous white arrow about the size of Texas on its surface?
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 16, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (20) |
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Climate change may alter natural climate cycles of Pacific
While it's still hotly debated among scientists whether climate change causes a shift from the traditional form of El Nino to one known as El Nino Modoki, online in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists now say that E ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 17, 2010 |
3.5 / 5 (23) |
18
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Two More Earth's Chandler Wobble Jumps Revealed, Last in 2005
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Chandler Wobble is a small variation in the rotation of the Earth on its axis. It has been known for some time that the phase of the Chandler Wobble jumped by 180 degrees in the 1920s, ...
Sep 02, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (17) |
5
Dead Ahead: Similar Early Warning Signals of Change in Climate, Ecosystems, Financial Markets, Human Health
(PhysOrg.com) -- What do abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth's climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and ...
Sep 02, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (19) |
4
Big freeze plunged Europe into ice age in months
In the film, 'The Day After Tomorrow' the world enters the icy grip of a new glacial period within the space of just a few weeks. Now new research shows that this scenario may not be so far from the truth after all.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 30, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (18) |
7
New type of El Nino could mean more hurricanes make landfall
El Niño years typically result in fewer hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean. But a new study suggests that the form of El Niño may be changing potentially causing not only a greater number of hurricanes ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 02, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (20) |
12
Researchers discover Icelandic current, change North Atlantic climate picture
An international team of researchers, including physical oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has confirmed the presence of a deep-reaching ocean circulation system off Iceland ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 21, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (13) |
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The day the algae died
The P-T mass extinction may have been instigated by populations of algae dying. According to one group of scientists, this die-off of large numbers of relatively simple life forms caused a crash in the ocean's ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2010 |
4.1 / 5 (13) |
8
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Oceanic seesaw links Northern and Southern hemisphere during abrupt climate change
Very large and abrupt changes in temperature recorded over Greenland and across the North Atlantic during the last Ice Age were actually global in extent, according to an international team of researchers led by Cardiff University.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 25, 2009 |
4 / 5 (13) |
8
Atmospheric carbon dioxide buildup unlikely to spark abrupt climate change
There have been instances in Earth history when average temperatures have changed rapidly, as much as 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) over a few decades, and some have speculated the same could happen again as ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 20, 2011 |
3.8 / 5 (13) |
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Ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon the water, such as the Earth's rotation, wind, temperature, salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun. Depth contours, shoreline configurations and interaction with other currents influence a current's direction and strength.
Ocean currents can flow for thousands of kilometers, and together they create the great flow of the global conveyor belt which plays a dominant part in determining the climate of many of the Earth’s regions. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream, which makes northwest Europe much more temperate than any other region at the same latitude. Another example is the Hawaiian Islands, where the climate is cooler (sub-tropical) than the tropical latitudes in which they are located, because of the effect of the California Current.
For more information about Ocean current, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
