News tagged with ocean currents

Radioactive bluefin tuna crossed the Pacific to US

Across the vast Pacific, the mighty bluefin tuna carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan's crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States 6,000 miles away - the first time a huge ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 15

Heavy ice could delay start of Shell Alaska's Arctic drilling

The heaviest polar ice in more than a decade could postpone the start of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean until the beginning of August, a delay of up to two weeks, Shell Alaska officials said.

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 38

DNA evidence shows that marine reserves help to sustain fisheries

Researchers reporting online on May 24 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology present the first evidence that areas closed to all fishing are helping to sustain valuable Australian fisheries. The intern ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Latest Southern Ocean research shows continuing deep ocean change

New research by teams of Australian and US scientists has found there has been a massive reduction in the amount of Antarctic Bottom Water found off the coast of Antarctica. Comparing detailed measurements taken during the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Japan in first commercial satellite launch

Japan joined the commercial space race Friday after its workhorse rocket put a paid-for South Korean satellite into orbit, pitting the country against Russia and Europe in the competition for customers.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Japan enters commercial space race

Japan will put a commercial satellite into space on Friday, officials said, in its first foray into the European- and Russian-dominated world of contract launches.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Elephant seal tracking reveals hidden lives of deep-diving animals

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who pioneered the use of satellite tags to monitor the migrations of elephant seals have compiled one of the largest datasets available for any marine mammal species, ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 15, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Questions about incredible sea turtle migration answered

Immediately after emerging from their underground nests on the lush beaches of eastern Florida, loggerhead sea turtles scramble into the sea and embark alone on a migration that takes them around the entire ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A push from the Mississippi kept Deepwater Horizon oil slick off shore, research shows

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, 2010, residents feared that their Gulf of Mexico shores would be inundated with oil. And while many wetland habitats and wildlife were oiled during the three-month ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 10, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Pacific islands may become refuge for corals in a warming climate, study finds

Scientists have predicted that ocean temperatures will rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems. But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 29, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study finds warm ocean currents cause majority of ice loss from Antarctica

Reporting this week in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has established that warm ocean currents are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from A ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Under climate change, winners and losers on the coral reef

As ocean temperatures rise, some species of corals are likely to succeed at the expense of others, according to a report published online on April 12 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology that details the fi ...

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Envisat - biggest environment satellite - goes silent

The European Space Agency said Thursday it had lost contact with Envisat, the biggest Earth-monitoring satellite in history.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

NASA views our perpetually moving ocean

(Phys.org) -- The swirling flows of Earth's perpetually changing ocean come to life in a new NASA scientific visualization that captures the movement of tens of thousands of ocean currents.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Team releases findings from 2011 cruise to measure the concentration, distribution, and impacts of Fukushima radiation

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international research team is reporting the results of a research cruise they organized to study the amount, spread, and impacts of radiation released into the ocean from the tsunami-crippled ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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.

Related topics: ocean , climate change