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 ...
May 28, 2012 |
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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.
May 28, 2012 |
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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 ...
May 24, 2012 |
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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
May 21, 2012 |
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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
May 17, 2012 |
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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
May 16, 2012 |
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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, ...
May 15, 2012 |
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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 ...
May 15, 2012 |
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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 ...
May 10, 2012 |
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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 ...
Apr 29, 2012 |
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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
Apr 25, 2012 |
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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 ...
Apr 12, 2012 |
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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
Apr 12, 2012 |
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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
Apr 10, 2012 |
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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 ...
Apr 02, 2012 |
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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.