Ocean currents are large-scale, persistent movements of seawater driven primarily by wind stress, density gradients (thermohaline circulation), Earth’s rotation, and basin geometry. They form interconnected surface and deep circulatory systems that redistribute heat, salt, nutrients, and dissolved gases across ocean basins. Major surface currents, organized into gyres, are largely wind-driven and Coriolis-deflected, while deep currents follow density-controlled pathways linked to water mass formation at high latitudes. Ocean currents modulate regional and global climate, influence marine biogeochemical cycles, and are central to coupled ocean–atmosphere dynamics represented in numerical circulation and climate models.
They spotted the first mat of Sargassum seaweed several miles out in Biscayne Bay. The captain of the 37-foot (11-meter) Yellowfin brought the vessel to a full stop, allowing the scientists on board to get a closer look at ...
Environment
Aug 18, 2026
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43
The processes that capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it on the seabed are crucial for climate balance. However, assessing these mechanisms is often complicated because it requires measurements ranging from the ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 3, 2026
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31
Sea-surface salinity, the concentration of dissolved salts in the upper layer of the ocean, is much more than a measure of how salty the sea is. It responds rapidly to changes in rainfall, evaporation, river discharge and, ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 30, 2026
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5
For more than 20 years, about 4,000 autonomous profiling floats have been drifting through the ocean. They form part of the international Argo program (Argo—global array of profiling floats). At regular intervals, they descend ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 23, 2026
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66
New Antarctic research shows the deepest layer of the Southern Ocean is shrinking faster than scientists realized, with the rate of change accelerating over the past decade. This is of worldwide significance because as it ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 15, 2026
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51
A slowing Atlantic Ocean current is projected to intensify powerful storms in California while reducing snowfall over Greenland, according to a recent University of California, Riverside study. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning ...
Environment
Jul 8, 2026
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117
The state of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has been a hot topic among climate scientists in recent years. The AMOC is crucial for climate regulation because it pulls warm surface water from the tropics ...
The Congo River is the second-largest river in the world, releasing an average of 40,000 cubic meters of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean. This huge discharge rate creates a large plume of fresh water that fans out ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 3, 2026
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57
The heat wave battering Europe may have an unlikely partner in crime: a patch of cold ocean water south of Iceland and Greenland that can influence weather patterns over the continent.
Environment
Jun 26, 2026
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52
New research indicates that sea turtles seem to navigate across hundreds of miles of open ocean using Earth's magnetic field. Previous experimental studies suggested that sea turtles use geomagnetism to navigate, but this ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 25, 2026
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