essay for ocean current

Ocean Currents: General Information Essay

Ocean currents are the routed movements of oceanic water which are constantly flowing within the ocean or on the ocean surface. An ocean current is created by several forces and elements that act upon a unit mass of water in the ocean and such factors on an environmental scale include the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, wind, salinity levels, and the rotation of the earth, temperature and tidal waves. However, the two forces that create the most conducive conditions for a current to form are the Sun and the rotation of the Earth.

Physical factors such as the depth of the ocean, contact with other currents and the composition of the shoreline will determine a current’s course and potency. Ocean currents are known to surge for great distances and the gravitational centrifugal pull of great currents round the earth has a pivotal role in influencing the global climate especially of islands and coastal regions.

It is well know that the California Current makes the weather of the Island of Hawaiian to be cooler as measure up to other regions which are situated at the same latitude, the current is a tropical one leading to the sub-tropical climate of the islands. Ocean currents also determine the marine life of a region because they play a major role in determining the salinity of the water.

Currents can carry a large volume of highly saline water for great distances and the marine life of the region where the water gets deposited can significantly be altered. There are different currents are flowing at different levels in the ocean and it is possible for two or more currents to flow through a single region simultaneously but at different levels.

There are generally two types of ocean currents depending on the water level where the movement of oceanic water takes place and they are the deep ocean currents and the surface ocean currents. Deep ocean currents are mainly caused by the fluctuation in the mass of water and by gravitational forces acting in the deeper parts of the ocean usually below three thousand feet.

Variation in temperature and the salinity levels of the water cause a change in the mass and volume of water leading to deep ocean currents. A submarine river is another term which is used to refer to deep water currents basically because the currents occur in the lower levels of the ocean.

The deep ocean currents carry large volumes of water which flow the greatest distances leading to thermohaline circulation. The submarine rivers are at times responsible for transferring deep water plankton and marine life from one part of the ocean to another and also cause the vertical movement of water in the upwelling and down welling parts in the oceans.

On the other hand, surface ocean currents take place on the upper levels of the ocean and are commonly caused by air currents acting on the ocean’s surface. Surface currents are composed of about ten percent of the total water volume in the ocean and are usually limited to the upper one thousand three hundred feet of the ocean.

Surface currents form the Ekman spiral effect which is the circular movement of ocean surface water at a given tangent relative to the prevailing air currents. The Ekman spiral effect is usually in a clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and in a counter-clockwise spiral in the southern hemisphere due the alternate air movements inflicted.

However, the Indian Ocean does not follow this rule due to the strong torrential rains and the atmospheric system in northern region of the ocean which alters its trend twice every year. The southwest torrential rain which occurs off the coast of Somalia is caused by the Great Whirl, which is a strong current which has a circular motion.

The currents on the ocean basin surface are normally asymmetric with the eastern currents flowing towards the equator and the western currents flowing towards the North and South poles. Such currents are majorly influenced by gravity, with the eastern currents flowing in separate extensive currents whereas the western currents for instance the Gulf Stream are relatively contracted.

Deep water current movement patterns are formed through a complex process which begins with the freezing of the water in the ocean. Once the water is frozen, the salt in the ocean water is also condensed in the freezing process and this leads to the creation of a layer of cold salt concentrated water which forms near the surface of the water where freezing generally takes place.

The brine then gradually sinks because of the density difference, brine being denser than the water below. The salt concentrated water is more viscous which makes it become denser than the water around it. Consequently, the gelatinous salty liquid sinks, leaving the surface levels of the ocean and will only settle when it gets to a region in the ocean where it bears an equal density to the surrounding ocean water.

This process is very prominent in the Greenland and Labrador Seas that are located in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Weddell and Ross Seas in the Southern Hemisphere. Similar to surface currents, most of the current movement takes place on the western sides of ocean basins except that deep ocean currents have their progression towards the north.

Surface currents flow in a succession of nearly circular gyres in the ocean basins. Most of the gyres are located in the western regions of the globe where the currents are contracted and carry large volumes of water for example the Gulf Stream, Agulhas and East Australian Currents.

The oceanic and atmospheric gyres help to move heat generated in the equatorial regions towards the poles. The polar movements of the ocean currents constitute the northward warm water current in the North Atlantic and in the North Pacific and the southward flow through the East Greenland and Labrador Currents. The surface currents that flow towards the equator move alongside the eastern edges of the gyres and are usually cooler than the currents that flow towards the poles located on the western margins.

Air movement causes upwelling and provides the requisite wind stress towards the equatorial region moving water away from the coast and gravitational force pushes cooler subsurface water to replace the unoccupied water spaces. The Southern Ocean region experiences persistent westerly air movement leading to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a constant circumglobal current which hinders the formation of gyres.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current allows for the integration water from different ocean basins making it the largest current on earth. Sverdrup (Sv), is the standard unit used to measure ocean currents with one Sv being equivalent to a volume flow rate of one million cubic meters per second.

The equatorial region experiences little or no gyres and currents here are usually surface currents stirred by the trade winds that originate from the eastern regions of the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

The North and South Equatorial Currents which move toward the west are formed by trade winds which lead to an upwelling along the equator due to the movement of the southeast trade winds across the equator. Furthermore, the equatorial region does not incur Coriolis force which is potent even with a one degree shift north or south of the equator.

The Doldrums region is formed in the equatorial region where the northern and southern currents border. The Doldrums region is generally permeable to the Equatorial Countercurrent water that flows back eastwards since the water would otherwise get concentrated on the western boundary allowing the doldrums region to act as an outlet. The velocity of the currents also varies, with the western currents moving faster than the eastern currents.

Marine life in the oceans is totally dependant on ocean currents for survival. Oxygen derived from the atmosphere is mixed with water through the flux of surface water like waves which are more or less generated by surface currents. For the oxygen to be delivered to the organisms, the oceanic currents and welling are needed to translocate the oxygen to all tiers of the ocean.

Furthermore, marine victuals for instant phytoplankton which are minute organisms that are primary in the marine food chain are distributed in the ocean through the ocean currents. The organisms are usually caught in the currents and transported for great distances before being deposited in an ecosystem where they establish sustenance.

Therefore ocean currents play an important role to both shallow and deep water organisms because they push food into the organisms’ environment. Surface organisms such as crabs are also reliant on the currents which carry microorganisms from the oceans and deposit them near the shores.

In addition, currents provide inimitable signals in the life cycle of almost all marine organisms through transport of subtle chemical indicators. Turtles for instance migrate for long distances to mate and the precursor to their migration is the sensing of chemical triggers produced by sources that are more than a thousand miles away which are transported by ocean currents.

Warm water used by marine life such as fish and turtles to incubate their eggs is deposited to the nesting grounds through ocean currents. Physical features such as lagoons are put together through the ocean currents which carry marine particles that are then deposited onto the lagoons leading to the expansion of the ecosystem. Due to the fact that ocean currents can move for great distances, they are also likely to spread out toxins in the oceans.

For example, DDT which was a deadly insecticide was commonly used in America in the mid twentieth century. Through deltas, slight concentrations of the insecticide were moved to the ocean. The eventual consequence was that the product was found in penguins in both the north and south poles which had led to the thinning of the penguin egg shells. The only possible reason as to how the insecticide moved to such great distances is through ocean currents.

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Ocean Currents and Climate

Scientists across the globe are trying to figure out why the ocean is becoming more violent and what, if anything, can be done about it. Ocean currents, including the ocean conveyor belt, play a key role in determining how the ocean distributes heat energy throughout the planet, thereby regulating and stabilizing climate patterns.

Earth Science, Oceanography

Mass flows of water, or currents , are essential to understanding how heat energy moves between Earth’s water bodies, landmasses, and atmosphere. The ocean covers 71 percent of the planet and holds 97 percent of its water, making the ocean a key factor in the storage and transfer of heat energy across the globe. The movement of this heat through local and global ocean currents affects the regulation of local weather conditions and temperature extremes, stabilization of global climate patterns, cycling of gases, and delivery of nutrients and larva to marine ecosystems.

Ocean currents are located at the ocean surface and in deep water below 300 meters (984 feet). They can move water horizontally and vertically, which occurs on local and global scales. The ocean has an interconnected current, or circulation, system powered by wind, tides, Earth’s rotation ( Coriolis effect ), the sun ( solar energy ), and water density differences. The topography and shape of ocean basins and nearby landmasses also influence ocean currents. These forces and physical characteristics affect the size, shape, speed, and direction of ocean currents.

Surface ocean currents can occur on local and global scales and are typically wind-driven, resulting in horizontal and vertical water movement. Horizontal surface currents that are local and typically short term include rip currents , longshore currents, and tidal currents. In upwelling currents, vertical water movement and mixing brings cold, nutrient-rich water toward the surface while pushing warmer, less dense water downward, where it condenses and sinks. This creates a cycle of upwelling and downwelling. Prevailing winds, ocean-surface currents, and the associated mixing influence the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the ocean, as well as global climate.

Deep ocean currents are density -driven and differ from surface currents in scale, speed, and energy. Water density is affected by the temperature, salinity (saltiness), and depth of the water. The colder and saltier the ocean water, the denser it is. The greater the density differences between different layers in the water column, the greater the mixing and circulation. Density differences in ocean water contribute to a global-scale circulation system, also called the global conveyor belt.

The global conveyor belt includes both surface and deep ocean currents that circulate the globe in a 1,000-year cycle. The global conveyor belt’s circulation is the result of two simultaneous processes: warm surface currents carrying less dense water away from the Equator toward the poles, and cold deep ocean currents carrying denser water away from the poles toward the Equator. The ocean’s global circulation system plays a key role in distributing heat energy, regulating weather and climate, and cycling vital nutrients and gases.

• The volume of water transported by the global conveyor belt is equal to 100 Amazon Rivers or 16 times the flow of all the world’s rivers combined.
• It would take a single water molecule approximately 1,000 years to complete one full cycle of the global conveyor belt. In that time, the water molecule would travel through the waters of all the major ocean basins: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic.
• Climate change leading to increases in ocean temperatures, evaporation of seawater, and glacial and sea ice melting could create an influx of warm freshwater onto the ocean surface. This would further block the formation of sea ice and disrupt the sinking of denser cold, salty water. These events could slow or even stop the ocean conveyor belt, which would result in global climate changes that could include drastic decreases in Europe’s temperatures due to a disruption of the Gulf Stream.

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Ocean currents, also known as continuous and directed movements of ocean water, play a crucial role in shaping our climate, local ecosystems, and even the seafood we enjoy.

These currents are a result of various factors, including tides, winds, and changes in the water’s density. They can be categorized into two types: surface currents and deep ocean currents, which together create a complex system with far-reaching effects on our environment. Surface currents, influenced by tides and winds, occur on the ocean’s surface and have a significant impact on weather patterns and marine travel.

Prevailing Winds – Wind Currents of The World

They can create favorable conditions for sailing or hinder maritime transportation, influencing trade routes and travel times.

These currents also have a direct influence on coastal ecosystems, affecting the distribution of nutrients and the migration patterns of marine species.

What Causes Deep Ocean Currents

Deep ocean currents, on the other hand, are driven by changes in water density, caused by variations in temperature and salinity. These currents flow in the depths of the ocean, and their slow but steady movement plays a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate.

They help distribute heat around the globe, influencing regional and global temperature patterns. Deep ocean currents also play a crucial role in the transport of nutrients and oxygen to deep-sea ecosystems, supporting a diverse array of marine life. It is important to note that ocean currents are not solely influenced by natural factors.

Coastal and sea floor features, such as underwater mountains or canyons, can alter the direction, speed, and location of these currents.

Additionally, the Coriolis effect, a result of Earth’s rotation, also contributes to the complex movement of ocean currents. In summary, ocean currents are dynamic and intricate systems that are driven by tides, winds, water density, and influenced by coastal and sea floor features.

How Does The Ocean Affect Climate and Weather on Land

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8.4: Ocean Currents

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Ocean water is constantly in motion (Figure 14.7). From north to south, east to west, and up and down the shore, ocean water moves all over the place. These movements can be explained as the result of many separate forces, including local conditions of wind, water, the position of the moon and Sun, the rotation of the Earth, and the position of land formations.

Figure 14.7 : Ocean waves transfer energy through the water over great distances.

Lesson Objectives

• Describe how surface currents form and how they affect the world’s climate.
• Describe the causes of deep currents.
• Relate upwelling areas to their impact on the food chain.

Surface Currents

Wind that blows over the ocean water creates waves. It also creates surface currents , which are horizontal streams of water that can flow for thousands of kilometers and can reach depths of hundreds of meters. Surface currents are an important factor in the ocean because they are a major factor in determining climate around the globe.

Causes of Surface Currents

Currents on the surface are determined by three major factors: the major overall global wind patterns, the rotation of the Earth, and the shape of ocean basins.

When you blow across a cup of hot chocolate, you create tiny ripples on its surface that continue to move after you’ve stopped blowing. The ripples in the cup are tiny waves, just like the waves that wind forms on the ocean surface. The movement of hot chocolate throughout the cup forms a stream or current, just as oceanic water moves when wind blows across it.

But what makes the wind start to blow? When sunshine heats up air, the air expands, which means the density of the air decreases and it becomes lighter. Like a balloon, the light warm air floats upward, leaving a slight vacuum below, which pulls in cooler, denser air from the sides. The cooler air coming into the space left by the warm air is wind.

Because the Earth’s equator is warmed by the most direct rays of the Sun, air at the equator is hotter than air further north or south. This hotter air rises up at the equator and as colder air moves in to take its place, winds begin to blow and push the ocean into waves and currents.

Wind is not the only factor that affects ocean currents. The ‘Coriolis Effect’ describes how Earth’s rotation steers winds and surface currents (Figure 14.14). The Earth is a sphere that spins on its axis in a counterclockwise direction when seen from the North Pole. The further towards one of the poles you move from the equator, the shorter the distance around the Earth. This means that objects on the equator move faster than objects further from the equator. While wind or an ocean current moves, the Earth is spinning underneath it. As a result, an object moving north or south along the Earth will appear to move in a curve, instead of in a straight line. Wind or water that travels toward the poles from the equator is deflected to the east, while wind or water that travels toward the equator from the poles gets bent to the west. The Coriolis Effect bends the direction of surface currents.

The third major factor that determines the direction of surface currents is the shape of ocean basins (Figure 14.15). When a surface current collides with land, it changes the direction of the currents. Imagine pushing the water in a bathtub towards the end of the tub. When the water reaches the edge, it has to change direction.

Figure 14.15 : This map shows the major surface currents at sea. Currents are created by wind, and their directions are determined by the Coriolis effect and the shape of ocean basins.

Effect on Global Climate

Surface currents play a large role in determining climate. These currents bring warm water from the equator to cooler parts of the ocean; they transfer heat energy. Let’s take the Gulf Stream as an example; you can find the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic Ocean in Figure 14.15. The Gulf Stream is an ocean current that transports warm water from the equator past the east coast of North America and across the Atlantic to Europe. The volume of water it transports is more than 25 times that of all of the rivers in the world combined, and the energy it transfers is more than 100 times the world’s energy demand. It is about 160 kilometers wide and about a kilometer deep. The Gulf Stream’s warm waters give Europe a much warmer climate than other places at the same latitude. If the Gulf Stream were severely disrupted, temperatures would plunge in Europe.

Deep Currents

Surface currents occur close to the surface of the ocean and mostly affect the photic zone. Deep within the ocean, equally important currents exist that are called deep currents . These currents are not created by wind, but instead by differences in density of masses of water. Density is the amount of mass in a given volume. For example, if you take two full one liter bottles of liquid, one might weigh more, that is it would have greater mass than the other. Because the bottles are both of equal volume, the liquid in the heavier bottle is denser. If you put the two liquids together, the one with greater density would sink and the one with lower density would rise.

Two major factors determine the density of ocean water: salinity (the amount of salt dissolved in the water) and temperature (Figure 14.16). The more salt that is dissolved in the water, the greater its density will be. Temperature also affects density: the colder the temperature, the greater the density. This is because temperature affects volume but not mass. Colder water takes up less space than warmer water (except when it freezes). So, cold water has greater density than warm water.

Figure 14.16 : Thermohaline currents are created by differences in density due to temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline). The blue arrows are deep currents and the red ones are surface currents.

Figure 14.17 : Surface and deep currents together form convection currents that circulate water from one place to another and back again. A water particle in the convection cycle can take 1600 years to complete the cycle.

More dense water masses will sink towards the ocean floor. Just like convection in air, when denser water sinks, its space is filled by less dense water moving in. This creates convection currents that move enormous amounts of water in the depths of the ocean. Why is the water temperature cooler in some places? Water cools as it moves from the equator to the poles via surface currents. Cooler water is more dense so it begins to sink. As a result, the surface currents and the deep currents are linked. Wind causes surface currents to transport water around the oceans, while density differences cause deep currents to return that water back around the globe (Figure 14.17).

As you have seen, water that has greater density usually sinks to the bottom. However, in the right conditions, this process can be reversed. Denser water from the deep ocean can come up to the surface in an upwelling (Figure 14.18). Generally, an upwelling occurs along the coast when wind blows water strongly away from the shore. As the surface water is blown away from the shore, colder water from below comes up to take its place. This is an important process in places like California, South America, South Africa, and the Arabian Sea because the nutrients brought up from the deep ocean water support the growth of plankton which, in turn, supports other members in the ecosystem. Upwelling also takes place along the equator between the North and South Equatorial Currents.

Figure 14.18 : An upwelling forces denser water from below to take the place of less dense water at the surface that is pushed away by the wind.

Lesson Summary

• Ocean waves are energy traveling through the water.
• The highest portion of a wave is the crest and the lowest is the trough.
• The horizontal distance between two wave crests is the wave’s length.
• Most waves in the ocean are wind generated waves.
• Ocean surface currents are produced by major overall patterns of atmospheric circulation, the Coriolis Effect and the shape of each ocean basin.
• Ocean surface circulation brings warm equatorial waters towards the poles and cooler polar water towards the equator.
• Deep ocean circulation is density driven circulation produced by differences in salinity and temperature of water masses.
• Upwelling areas are biologically important areas that form as ocean surface waters are blown away from a shore, causing cold, nutrient rich waters to rise to the surface.

Review Questions

• What factors of wind determine the size of a wave?
• Define the crest and trough of a wave.
• What is the most significant cause of the surface currents in the ocean?
• How do ocean surface currents affect climate?
• What is the Coriolis Effect?
• Some scientists have hypothesized that if enough ice in Greenland melts, the Gulf Stream might be shut down. Without the Gulf Stream to bring warm water northward, Europe would become much colder. Explain why melting ice in Greenland might affect the Gulf Stream.
• What process can make denser water rise to the top?
• Why are upwelling areas important to marine life?
• Provided by : Wikibooks. Located at : http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/High_School_Earth_Science/Ocean_Movements . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

The Role of Ocean Currents in Climate

ThinkTV, Teachers' Domain

This video segment uses data-based visual NOAA representations to trace the path of surface ocean currents around the globe and explore their role in creating climate zones. Ocean surface currents have a major impact on regional climate around the world, bringing coastal fog to San Francisco and comfortable temperatures to the British Isles.

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials .

• Teaching Tips This video provides some useful visuals for a unit on global ocean currents. There is a very nice research project in the teaching tips section asking students to research a coastal city to determine how ocean currents determine its climate.
• About the Science Video focuses on role of surface ocean currents in global climate. Comment from expert scientist: Asks students to think on both global and local scales. Includes (though necessarily briefly) both major processes that move ocean water: wind forcing and density. Relates the oceans to climate processes on large scales (e.g. heat uptake by the ocean) and smaller scales (e.g. El Niño, local coastal climates).
• About the Pedagogy This video includes a background essay and teaching tips. Links to other videos and resources are included, making it easy to build a more comprehensive unit on ocean currents.
• Technical Details/Ease of Use The quality of the streaming video is likely not suitable for classroom projection. The download versions are of higher quality.

EssayEmpire

Ocean currents essay.

This Ocean Currents Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Ocean currents are horizontal layers of seawater that move. There are three types of currents: coastal, surface layer, and deepwater. Coastal currents occur immediately adjacent to the shore. Wave action, gravity, and hydrostatic pressure generate such currents. Longshore currents, the ebb and flow of tidal currents, and dangerous rip current are common examples of coastal currents. Freshwater inflow from rivers, friction with the seafloor, and irregular coastlines add to their variability. Surface layer currents and deepwater currents occur farther offshore.

The sinking of cold, salty water in polar regions creates deepwater currents. These currents bring oxygen to marine life at great depths. The sinking of surface water and the upwelling of deepwater makes up a “conveyor belt” that includes both surface layer and deepwater currents. The belt slowly exchanges water between ocean basins. Climate experts believe that fits and starts in this conveyor belt may explain climate shifts over intervals of 1,000 years or more. Upwelling and downwelling also alter nutrient levels of the water that affect marine ecosystems and fishing patterns.

Surface layer currents are the most understood of the three currents. Persistent winds drive them. When winds blow across the ocean surface, friction transfers energy from the wind to the water. The transfer depends on the velocity of the wind, surface tension of the water, and roughness of the surface. Friction transfers kinetic energy into the water, and also transfers kinetic energy downward in progressively lesser amounts, so that wind-driven currents are usually restricted to the upper 1,300 feet (390 meters) of the oceans and generally to even shallower depths. The speed of the resulting current is about 3 to 4 percent of the wind speed.

The largest surface layer currents form gyres in subtropical latitudes. Gyres are large water circulation systems that flow around the peripheries of the oceans in the subtropical latitudes. The currents flow clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. The trade winds and the westerlies create the gyres. Besides these winds, the Coriolis effect, configuration of landmasses, and higher sea levels near the centers of the gyres affect the flow of the currents. Separate subtropical gyres are present north and south of the equator in each ocean except in the Indian Ocean, which has only a southern gyre. Each gyre has an equatorial current, which absorbs energy from the tropical sun and flows parallel to the equator, a warm western current that delivers the tropical heat to polar latitudes, and a cold eastern current that returns to the equator.

The fastest and deepest currents are the warm western currents. There are five such currents: the Gulf Stream (in the North Atlantic), the Japan or Kuroshio Current (in the North Pacific), the Brazil Current (in the South Atlantic), the Agulhas Current (in the Indian Ocean), and the East Australian Current (in the South Pacific). There are also five cold eastern currents: the Canary Current (in the North Atlantic), the Benguela Current (in the South Atlantic), the California Current (in the North Pacific), the West Australian Current (in the Indian Ocean), and the Peru or Humboldt Current (in the South Pacific). The world’s largest current is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This eastward flowing cold current encircles the Antarctica, but contributes cold water to the southern gyres.

Surface layer currents have much the same effect on climate in their areas as do the winds that generate them. For instance, warm ocean currents warm nearby air and tend to add water vapor to the air through evaporation. Thus, coastal areas next to warm currents tend to have humid climates. Conversely, cold ocean currents add little moisture to the nearby air. When the cool, dry air travels over a continent, it results in very little precipitation on the coast. Fog may form over both types of currents, but is more frequent over cold currents due to the chilling effect they have on the overlying air. The circulating gyres moderate global temperatures. As a result, equatorial areas are cooler and higher latitudes are warmer than they might be otherwise. An example is the mild temperatures imparted to northwestern Europe and Scandinavia by the North Atlantic drift, a branch of the warm Gulf Stream. The temperatures of these regions are much warmer than the same latitudes in Canada.

Bibliography:

• Robert E. Gabler, James F. Peterson, and L. Michael Trapasso, Essentials of Physical Geography (Brooks/Cole, 2004);
• Tom Garrison, Oceanography: An Invitation to Marine Science (Brooks/Cole, 2001);
• Open University, Ocean Circulation (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001).
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• Essay Topics
• Essay Examples

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Introduction

In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that formally recognized the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment 1 . This important milestone, drawing on decades of developments in international human rights law and international environmental law, highlights the importance of the environment to the dignity, security and wellbeing of all humans, and the need for society as a whole, and governments and the private sector in particular, to take action to safeguard this fundamental right. Importantly, the obligations and responsibilities associated with the “right to a healthy environment” apply to everyone, everywhere, and in all environments – including the ocean. Yet, despite the evidence of mounting threats to the ocean environment and to associated human rights 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , there has been insufficient attention to the implications and transformative potential of the recognition of the right to a healthy environment for ocean governance.

In the following section, we briefly introduce human rights law, including in relation to the environment, and discuss how human rights issues related to the ocean environment are on the rise. Then, we explore how the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment has the potential to catalyze ocean action and transform ocean governance.

Human rights, the environment, and the ocean

The right to a healthy environment is part of the set of universal, indivisible and inalienable human rights that are fundamental to human dignity, security, and thriving. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) encompasses both civil and political rights (which include rights to life, liberty and security of the person, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom from discrimination, freedom of movement, property and nationality, freedom of thought, religion, opinion, expression, association and peaceful assembly); and, economic, social and cultural rights (which include the rights to health, education, housing, freedom from hunger, an adequate standard of living, science and culture) 6 . Subsequent treaties and declarations have clarified the responsibility to further safeguard the rights of persons belonging to groups subject to discrimination (e.g, ethnic, religious and minority groups), potentially vulnerable groups (e.g., women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, displaced persons), and the unique rights of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities due to their historical and continued connections to places and direct reliance on natural resources (see Table 1 for details). International human rights treaties are legally binding on State parties and provide broadly accepted guidance to non-parties and other entities.

The human right to a healthy environment includes the right to clean air, a safe climate, healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, safe and sufficient water, non-toxic environments, and healthy and sustainable food, as well as access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice 7 (Fig. 1 ). When environmental health is undermined, this can affect other human rights such as the rights to life, health, food, water, livelihoods, security, and dignity, and have distinctive impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ rights, cultural rights, and children’s rights 8 . In other words, globally, the burden of pollution, declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services, and climate change threaten the environmental foundations required for the enjoyment of all human rights. For example, polluted air causes millions of premature deaths and millions of illnesses annually, affecting rights to life and health 9 , 10 . The climate crisis is affecting agricultural productivity and the availability of water, affecting rights to food, water and health 11 , 12 . Though international human rights treaties do not explicitly recognize the right to a healthy environment, they have provided some protection for it indirectly 13 . In addition, this right has long been recognized in regional human rights instruments (for example, the Aarhus Convention 14 and the Escazú Agreement 15 ) and in domestic law of the vast majority of states (as of 2023, 161 out of 193 UN member States recognize the right to a healthy environment in law through constitutions, legislation, or ratification of regional treaties 7 , updated to include recent developments in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Canada, Grenada, and Saint Lucia). While not legally binding, in 2021 and 2022, resolutions were adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment 1 , 16 . The UN resolutions clarify the universal nature of this right and are expected to catalyze further legal developments at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels and accelerate actions to respect, protect and fulfill this right.

Despite this legal and normative progress, there is worrying evidence that the scope and scale of global and local threats to the full enjoyment of human rights, and in particular the right to a healthy environment associated with the ocean, are on the rise. Marine pollutants emanating from point and non-point sources both on land and at sea are continually contaminating the ocean, impacting ecosystems and accumulating in species, with implications for food security, livelihoods, and human health 4 . Plastics are a major concern, with ~4.8–12.7 million tonnes discharged into the ocean annually 17 , 18 . Globally, overfishing is affecting the cultural rights, food security, health, and livelihoods of small-scale fishers and other populations that depend on fish and seafood around the world 19 , 20 . Climate change impacts related to the climate crisis– ocean warming, acidification, changing weather patterns, extreme events, sea level rise, inundation, saltwater contamination, and storm surges – are undermining the food security, livelihoods, housing, infrastructure and physical security of coastal communities 3 , 21 . Some populations living in island nations and low-lying coastal areas have already been physically displaced by the effects of climate change – which threatens rights to security of the person and self-determination - a trend which is projected to increase 22 . Global declines in habitats and biodiversity – caused by climate change, pollution, and various forms of ocean and coastal development – are affecting marine ecosystem services that are important for climate regulation, human security, cultural continuity and quality of life 3 , 23 . Emerging activities in the ocean – such as industrial aquaculture and deep-sea mining – have adverse impacts on biodiversity, and undermine climate change mitigation, thereby threatening the human rights of current and future generations 24 , 25 .

Some groups - including women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers, coastal communities, and small-island developing states - routinely bear a disproportionate burden of the impacts of environmental degradation and hazards on human rights due to higher levels of vulnerability or high dependence on fisheries and seafood 8 , 26 , 27 . This is often compounded by ongoing structural marginalization of and historic dispossession of marine territories from Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers, and other traditional users 28 , 29 . Ocean-related environmental injustices and human rights issues often emerge from, or are reinforced by the lack of inclusion of local people in decisions that will affect their lives 2 . Furthermore, the steady degradation of the ocean and its resources due to unsustainable development and climate change threatens the rights of future generations.

Threats to the ocean environment and risks to human rights will likely increase due to growing demand for resources and accelerating ocean-based industrialization 30 , 31 . Yet we contend that insufficient attention has been given to human rights related to the ocean environment. However, this is rapidly changing - especially in the international realm (Box 1 ).

Box 1 Recent examples of how there is increasing attention to ocean governance in international human rights processes

There has been a rapid increase of references to human rights issues in ocean governance in international human rights processes, with increasing references to the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Examples include:

2020 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Environment and Human Rights on biodiversity included a recommendation to ensure that the proposed agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction includes appropriate consideration of human rights (UN Doc A/75/161, para 90(j))

2022 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights on principles for sustainable development refers to blue economy projects that have marginalized Indigenous Peoples and small-scale fishers (UN Doc A/77/290, para 68)

2022 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment on gender recommended promoting equal rights and opportunities for women in fisheries (UN Doc A/HRC/52/33, para 94(c))

2022 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change on loss and damage referred to the permanent loss of ocean territories, ecosystems, livelihoods, culture and heritage (UN Doc A/77/226, para 92(f))

2022 joint policy brief by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and One Ocean Hub “Applying coherently the human rights-based approach to small-scale fisheries for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals” 75

2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework indicates that its implementation should follow a human rights-based approach, acknowledging the human right to a healthy environment, and contains targets on marine protected areas, fisheries and marine spatial planning 39

2023 UN General Comment No 26 on children’s rights and a healthy environment, with a special focus on climate change, indicates that to protect children’s right to a healthy environment, States should take immediate action to prevent marine pollution, and transform industrial fisheries (UN Doc CRC/C/GC/26, para 65(c) and (f))

2023 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment on investor-state disputes refers to marine ecosystems being jeopardized by claims related to ocean-based industrial activities (UN Doc A/78/168, para 56)

2023 report of the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Business on extractives and just transition pointed to the human rights and environmental impacts of the blue economy, including offshore energy and seabed mining projects (UN Doc A/78/155 , para 44)

2023 UN Secretary-General’s Report on “Adverse impact of climate change on the full realization of the right to food” refers to the negative impacts of climate change on the right to food of fisheries-dependent communities (UN Doc A/HRC/53/47 , para 12)

2023 Report by UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics is devoted to the impact of the shipping sector on human rights and the environment (UN Doc A/78/169)

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called upon States not to proceed with plans for deep-sea mining without adequate safeguards, including sufficient scientific knowledge to ensure the protection of the human right to a healthy environment 35

The transformative potential of the right to a healthy environment for ocean governance

While there is growing recognition among international human rights experts of the need to protect the human right to a healthy environment in ocean governance, there is still insufficient engagement of ocean advocates, practitioners, policy-makers and managers with the implications of the human right to a healthy environment for enhancing ocean governance. Below, we explore three specific ways that the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment has the potential to catalyze ocean action and transform ocean governance.

Catalyzing marine protection and increasing accountability through clarifying state obligations

Under international human rights law, states have specific obligations to promote, respect, protect and fulfill human rights 32 . The recognition of the human right to a healthy environment clarifies the minimum content of State obligations to take effective action for the ocean environment, which tend to be framed as open-ended provisions in international biodiversity and climate change law, as well as in the law of the sea 33 . Protecting the human right to a healthy environment requires States to establish substantive, proportional and non-retrogressive laws, policies, institutions and management regimes to protect the marine environment and human rights, as well as effective monitoring, investigation, and enforcement mechanisms to maintain environmental and human rights standards 13 and to prevent “unjustified, foreseeable infringements of human rights” arising from environmental degradation or conservation 34 . The right clarifies the necessity of protecting and restoring marine biodiversity, sustainably managing fisheries, curtailing marine pollution, and mitigating climate change, including from a precautionary perspective in the absence of full scientific certainty. This is crucial in the case of deepsea mining, for example, as our knowledge of potential impacts on both ecosystems and human rights is still limited 25 , 35 . The human right to a healthy environment also clarifies that the state has obligations to prevent discrimination. This is of particular importance to ensure the protection of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and small-scale fishers 36 , 37 .

The human right to a healthy environment also clarifies that the states must prevent regression from current levels of environmental protection, make polluters pay, and mobilize the maximum available resources for fulfilling its human right obligations related to the environment 13 . State obligations to protect the human right to a healthy environment also apply in the context of international cooperation, including international funding for sustainable development 38 . Thus, the recognition of the relevance of the human right to a healthy environment in the context of ocean governance clarifies that States need to provide additional financial resources, including through climate finance 33 , to address the chronic under-funding of ocean protection measures, such as those contained in SDG14 (Life Below Water) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 39 , 40 .

The human right to a healthy environment also clarifies that States must ensure access to justice and effective remedies in situations where their action or inaction results in significant climate, environmental, and human rights harm 13 . This can allow national courts to catalyze more ambitious ocean action when governments (or sectors of governments) are unwilling to do so. In the Supreme Court of Costa Rica, for example, civil society have used their right to a healthy ocean environment to win cases that have protected habitat for sea turtles, stopped the bycatch of hammerhead sharks, and overturned the approval of bottom trawling 41 . Court cases arguing for the right to a healthy environment have been used in Kenya to stop a major coal port 42 , 43 , in South Africa to stop offshore oil and gas exploration 44 , and in the Philippines to overturn regulations that allowed destructive fishing practices 45 and to mandate marine clean-up and restoration 46 . State recognition of the right has also been a catalyst for the creation of marine protected areas in a diverse range of countries including Portugal, Croatia and Papua New Guinea. While human rights and civil society organizations are starting to participate in new areas of ocean governance, such as marine spatial planning, the blue economy, or fisheries management, there remains significant scope to involve national human rights institutions in ocean governance.

It also remains to be clarified how questions of human rights accountability can be ensured in the context of regional and global ocean governance processes, which have a bearing on critical questions related to fisheries and other ocean resources management at the national level. The 2023 High Seas Treaty provides entry points for the consideration of human rights and new levels of transparency that can have an influence on other global and regional ocean instruments 47 .

Enhancing the inclusiveness of ocean governance, including through prioritizing and empowering groups in situations of vulnerability and marginalization

The recognition of a human right to a healthy environment clarifies specific minimum standards to ensure the inclusiveness of ocean governance processes. The procedural obligations stemming from this right require states to: ensure that all rights-holders have access to information regarding the environmental and human rights impacts of marine and coastal development and conservation activities, enable the full participation of all affected parties in decision-making related to the marine environment, and provide access to justice and effective remedies for violations 13 , 14 , 15 . In particular, States have a responsibility to promote early, meaningful and equitable participation in ocean governance – which necessitates representation of all affected parties, equal access to spaces of engagement (which might be physical or online), contextually appropriate processes and supports to enable participation, adequate opportunities to engage in dialog and provide inputs, and the ability to influence decisions and outcomes 48 , 49 , 50 . States are also obligated to ensure that groups with unique rights to the ocean environment and marine resources based on historical connections and continued reliance for food, livelihoods, and cultural continuity (including Indigenous Peoples and small-scale fishers) are granted Free, Prior and Informed Consent or comparable standards before activities occur that might affect the environment and their rights 36 , 51 , 52 . Finally, States have a responsibility to maintain safe civic spaces where environmental human rights defenders, who increasingly include “ocean defenders” (individuals and groups advocating for the marine environment and associated human rights), are guaranteed freedom of expression, association, assembly and protest, and are safeguarded from threats, harassment, intimidation or violence 53 , 54 .

These procedural obligations should also apply to international ocean fora where traditionally there has not been acknowledgement of the relevance of human rights, including with regard to marine areas beyond national jurisdiction 55 , 56 . The pending advisory opinion of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea on climate change and the oceans may clarify this area of law. Furthermore, the participation of Indigenous Peoples and other knowledge holders, and the respectful integration of their knowledge and cultural heritage, in both national and international ocean fora is required as a matter of preventing discrimination and protecting everyone’s human right to science to the benefit of the human right to a healthy environment 36 , 55 . Yet, as it currently stands, there are significant challenges and impediments to the meaningful participation of civil society and representative organizations in international ocean governance fora. Before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, for instance, CSOs and NGOs have no right to be a party to a case, but they can send written submissions, which while not being part of the official case file, are considered by the Tribunal 57 . Similar restrictions apply to other international judicial bodies that are relevant for ocean governance, such as the International Court of Justice. In the context of the International Seabed Authority, there are concerns about restrictions to the participation and freedom of expression of NGOs and the media, and increasing stigmatization of their contributions 55 , 58 . Other international and regional ocean governance fora have various degrees of openness to civil society, but generally do not uphold the full range of applicable procedural human rights 48 , 59 . Thanks to the growing recognition of the inter-linkages between the ocean and human rights, current limitations in meaningful participation in international ocean governance fora can be raised by civil society before international, regional and national human rights monitoring bodies, which could formulate recommendations on how to improve current practices 55 .

Human rights law, including the right to a healthy environment, also requires States to prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable, including those who are more vulnerable to environmental hazards and harms 13 , 26 , such as women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, and displaced persons, as well as Indigenous Peoples and small-scale fishers 36 . Thus, the recognition of a right to a healthy environment clarifies the obligations of public authorities in ocean governance to shift away from current technical and stakeholder oriented decision-making processes that formally treat all groups (including large-scale business) equally despite power imbalances, and differentiated vulnerabilities to environmental impacts. Fulfilling these human rights obligations rests on the collection and analysis of disaggregated data, and the consideration of differentiated impacts in impact and strategic assessments 13 . It also requires rethinking ocean literacy to include human rights education 60 .

The recognition of a right to a healthy environment also provides a clear legal basis upon which human rights holders can advocate for the protection of the marine environment. There is a growing number of cases of small-scale fishers, Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth using human rights arguments to campaign against destructive or polluting marine and coastal development or to underpin court cases against governments or the private sector. For example, youth activists have called for a moratorium on deep-seabed mining 55 and children’s human rights allies are calling for sustainable and inclusive ocean-based climate action 61 . Small-scale fishers and coastal Indigenous Peoples are increasingly self-identifying as environmental human rights defenders (or “ocean defenders”) in their advocacy and actions against unsustainable and exclusionary ocean management 53 . Importantly, all civil society actors that engage in peaceful protest - whether on land or at sea 62 , 63 - have a right to do so, as codified in international human rights treaties.

Improving ocean economy practices through clarifying private sector responsibilities

As part of the obligations stemming from the right to a healthy environment, States are obligated to effectively regulate and monitor the activities of the private sector working in the marine and coastal environment to prevent human rights abuses. In addition, under international human rights law, the private sector – regardless of size, sector, location, ownership, structure and level of complexity – has a responsibility to respect human rights, including the right to a healthy environment 1 , 13 , 64 . Pursuant to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, businesses operating in the ocean economy have a responsibility to ensure that they are preventing, mitigating and remediating impacts on human rights related to ocean environments through clear human rights policies, human rights and environmental due diligence procedures, and grievance and remediation mechanisms 64 . Human rights and environmental due diligence procedures include: ongoing assessments of the potential and actual environmental and human rights impacts of their own activities, business relationships and supply chains, integration of the findings of impact assessments into internal decision-making and taking appropriate actions, tracking the effectiveness of their actions to ensure adequate responses to identified impacts, and transparently communicating assessments, actions and results externally 64 . Non-judicial grievance processes that are accessible and transparent should be established by businesses or industry associations across sectors of the ocean economy 64 . When adverse impacts on human rights related to the ocean environment have been identified, businesses have a responsibility to proactively arrange or willingly engage in legitimate remediation processes.

Impact assessments, safeguards and accountability mechanisms must also be adopted by financial institutions – including private firms and international institutions – to ensure their investments in ocean development are not contributing to or worsening impacts on environmental human rights 64 . This is also true for private sector and financial institutions’ involvement in ocean conservation measures, and ocean-based climate change measures such as carbon sequestration and capture initiatives.

Importantly, all private sector entities are subject to and required to comply with all applicable environmental and human rights laws and agreements of the countries where they operate and are domiciled, even when their activities are occurring in the exclusive economic zones of other nations or in the high seas. International companies also need to respect international human rights above and beyond what is required of them by applicable national laws 64 , which is particularly important if States are lagging behind in developing their national frameworks on ocean-related human rights or on Indigenous Peoples’ human rights. So for instance, businesses should assess their impacts on human rights arising from ocean-based activities, even if their activities are not subject to national requirements for environmental impact assessments, which is often the case for large-scale fisheries 65 .

While the understanding of business and human rights in the ocean context is still nascent 66 , 67 , there has been some uptake of human rights in guidance and principles related to development of and investment in the ocean economy 68 , 69 , 70 . However, other than a growing number of corporate signatories to these documents 71 , it is difficult to determine whether there has been substantial progress by the private sector on taking action to protect the human right to a healthy ocean. On the one hand, national and regional legislation is being adopted to make human rights and environmental due diligence mandatory for larger businesses (see France, Law of Vigilance; Germany, Supply Chain Due Diligence Act; EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive). On the other hand, international guidance documents on business and human rights do not yet specifically reference the right to a healthy environment. It is still unclear whether a legally binding instrument on business and human rights, which is currently under development, will refer to the human right to a healthy environment. Meanwhile, multinational corporations are still able to benefit from significant protection under international investment law 72 , which limits the possibilities for States to protect the marine environment, take effective climate action and protect ocean-dependent human rights 73 . Against this alarming backdrop, drawing on the human right to a healthy environment to raise the ambition and clarify the scope of current initiatives on business due diligence, is imperative. And effective national regulation of ocean-related business, as well as the development of relevant provisions in international investment and trade agreements that are protective of the human right to a healthy environment is essential.

Conclusion: From recognition to implementation of the human right to a healthy ocean

Humans depend on the ocean for food, health, livelihoods, security, cultural continuity, and a good standard of life. Yet, a myriad of ocean issues - including pollution, plastics, climate change, overfishing, industrialization, ecosystem degradation, and loss of biodiversity – are undermining human rights related to the ocean environment. In this perspective, we draw attention to the transformative potential of the United Nations resolutions on “The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” to enhance ocean protection and governance. In particular, we highlight how the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment can: catalyze marine protection and increase accountability through clarifying state obligations; enhance the inclusiveness of ocean governance, including through prioritizing and empowering groups in situations of vulnerability and marginalization; and improve ocean economy practices through clarifying private sector responsibilities.

While there is emerging evidence that the human right to a healthy environment is already catalyzing marine protection and transforming ocean governance, there is still an urgent need to take steps to move faster and more strategically from recognition to uptake and implementation. Priority actions to make this happen include:

raising awareness about the potential of the human right to a healthy environment to catalyze urgent, effective and equitable marine protection and sustainable ocean use;

strengthening national and international legal frameworks and institutional capacity for ocean conservation, management and restoration, to effectively prevent infringements of the human right to a healthy environment by states and the business sector;

ensuring sufficient funding for ocean conservation and management, to protect everyone’s human right to a healthy environment;

improving alignment and coordination between human rights and ocean governance organizations, institutions and policies;

enhancing environmental democracy in ocean governance and maintaining safe civic spaces for ocean advocates and defenders;

increasing knowledge, capacity and legal empowerment of structurally marginalized and potentially vulnerable groups to advocate for their right to a healthy ocean;

encouraging environmental and civil society organizations to collaborate and work in solidarity with marginalized and vulnerable groups who are advocating for their right to a healthy ocean; and,

strengthening regulation, monitoring and accountability mechanisms that require the private sector to fulfill its responsibilities related to the right to a healthy environment.

The human right to a healthy environment offers a beacon of hope for communities and constituencies struggling to ensure the just and sustainable conservation, restoration and use of the oceans. Governments have clear obligations, not options, pursuant to international human rights law to enact, implement and enforce laws that will improve ocean health and the well-being of people who depend on marine ecosystems. The private sector also has responsibilities and can be held to account for actions that infringe on human right to a healthy ocean. While some communities are more obviously dependent on the oceans, the fact that these vast ecosystems cover more than 70% of the planet and have absorbed approximately 93% of the excess heat caused by greenhouse gas emissions 74 means that all of humanity depends on this global marine life-support system. The human right to a healthy environment helps to ensure that no-one is left behind in ocean governance, and that transformative changes to protect the ocean are effective and equitable, drawing on diverse life experiences, worldviews, values and knowledge systems.

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Acknowledgements

Aspects of the research that led to this paper was supported in part by a grant from the Packard Foundation to Coastal Renewal Society for The Ocean Defenders Project ( https://oceandefendersproject.org/ ). EM was supported by the One Ocean Hub ( https://oneoceanhub.org/ ), which is a collaborative research programme for sustainable development funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) (Grant Ref: NE/S008950/1). All authors acknowledge institutional support from their respective organizational affiliations.

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Law School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

Elisa Morgera

One Ocean Hub, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, Geneva, Switzerland

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Bennett, N.J., Morgera, E. & Boyd, D. The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable ocean. npj Ocean Sustain 3 , 19 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-024-00057-7

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Ocean Currents

What is Ocean Current? It is a horizontal movement of seawater that is produced by gravity, wind, and water density. Ocean currents play an important role in the determination of climates of coastal regions.

As an important topic of Geography (Oceanography), questions could be framed either in Prelims or Mains (GS 1) papers of the IAS Exam .

Candidates can check previous years’ Geography Questions in UPSC Prelims in the linked article.

Understand the basics of ocean currents in this article.

Ocean Water and Ocean Currents

The movement of ocean water is continuous. This movement of ocean water is broadly categorized into three types:

The streams of water that flow constantly on the ocean surface in definite directions are called ocean currents.

Ocean currents are one of the factors that affect the temperature of ocean water.

• Warm ocean currents raise the temperature in cold areas
• Cold ocean currents decrease the temperature in warmer areas.

To understand the ocean waves and related concepts, check the links below:

Relevant Facts about Ocean Currents for UPSC

• The magnitude of the ocean currents ranges from a few centimetres per second to as much as 4 metres (about 13 feet) per second.
• The intensity of the ocean currents generally decreases with increasing depth.
• The speed of ocean currents is more than that of upwelling or downwelling which are the vertical movements of ocean water.
• Warm Ocean Currents
• Cold Ocean Currents

What causes ocean currents?

Horizontal pressure-gradient forces, Coriolis forces, and frictional forces are important forces that cause and affect ocean currents. NCERT Notes on Factors Affecting Wind mention Coriolis Force that one can read in the linked article.

Rise and fall of the tide

Tides give rise to tidal currents. Near the shore, tidal currents are the strongest. The change in tidal currents is periodical in nature and can be predicted for the near future. The speed of tidal currents at some places can be around 8 knots or more.

The ocean currents at or near the ocean surface are driven by wind forces.

Thermohaline Circulation

‘Thermo’ stands for temperature and ‘Haline’ stands for salinity. The variations in temperature and salinity at different parts of the oceans create density differences which in turn affect the ocean currents.

What is a Frictional Force?

The movement of water through the oceans is slowed by friction, with surrounding fluid moving at a different velocity. A faster-moving layer of water and a slower-moving layer of water would impact each other. This causes momentum transfer between both layers producing frictional forces.

What are geostrophic currents?

When the pressure gradient force on the ocean current is balanced by the Coriolis forces, it results in the geostrophic currents.

• The direction of geostrophic flow is parallel to an isobar.
• The high pressure is to the right of the flow in the Northern Hemisphere, and the high pressure to the left is found in the Southern Hemisphere.

North and South Equatorial Currents

North Equatorial Current

• North Equatorial Current flows from east to west in the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.
• North Equatorial Current flows between the latitudes of 10 degrees and 20 degrees north.
• It is not connected to the equator.
• Equatorial circulation separates this current between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

South Equatorial Current

• It flows in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans.
• The direction of the south equatorial current is east to west.
• The latitudes in which the current flows are between the equator and 20 degrees south.
• It flows across the equator to 5 degrees north latitudes in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

What is the Equatorial Counter Current?

It is found in the following three oceans:

• Indian Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Pacific Ocean

It is found between north and south equatorial currents at about 3-10 degrees north latitude.

What is Antarctic Circumpolar Current?

The ocean current that flows clockwise around the Antarctic is called the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. It is also called West Wind Drift. It is a feature of ocean circulation of the Southern Ocean.

• It does not have a well-defined axis
• It consists of a series of individual currents which are separated by frontal zones.

What is a Global Conveyor Belt?

A system of ocean currents that helps in the transportation of water around the world is called a global conveyor belt. As per National Geographic, “Along this conveyor belt, heat and nutrients are moved around the world in a leisurely 1000-year cycle.”

Distribution of Ocean Currents

The ocean currents are distributed across five oceans. The list of important ocean-wise currents is given below:

Download the  UPSC syllabus from the linked article as it will help candidates to remain on track while they prepare for any topic.

Frequently Asked Questions on Ocean Currents

Q 1. what is meant by ocean current, q 2. what are tidal currents.

For Geography preparation, check the links below:

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Ocean currents and their importance

Updated 22 May 2023

Subject Geography ,  Nature ,  United States

Downloads 41

Category Science ,  Environment ,  World

Topic Ocean ,  Sea ,  California

Ocean currents are vertical or horizontal movements that occur in the world's seas, both on the surface and deep depths. Currents typically move in one direction and aid in the circulation of moisture on the ground as a result of water pollution and weather. The size of ocean currents, which can be found all around the world. The most well-known currents include the California and Humboldt currents in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Monsoon Indian currents in the Indian Ocean (Chelton, Schlax, Michael, and Ralph 2004)

Ocean currents are classified into two categories. The sizes and strengths of the various varieties vary. They encompass both surface and deep ocean currents. Surface ocean currents are situated in the upper part of the ocean which is around 400 meters and they are making up around 10% of the total current oceans. Frictions of wind are the major causes of the surface ocean currents because wind creates frictions as it moves across the water. Water then moves in a pattern that is a spiral that is caused by the friction forces hence leading to the creation of gyres. Gyres can move to either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on their location. Those that are located in the Northern Hemisphere moves in the clockwise direction while those in the southern hemisphere moves in counter-clockwise direction (McCullough 1978, 9-33)

Surface currents move at a high speed which decreases at about 100 meters down the ocean. Surface currents usually move to long distances and for this reason, the Coriolis force plays an important role in the movement as it tends to aid them further hence helping them in the creation of circular patterns. Due to the unevenness of the current oceans the gravity plays an important role in the movement. Where the water meets the land mounds are usually made. They can also be formed where the currents merge or where water is warmer. Gravity is the one that leads to the formation of the currents as it pushes water down the slope on the mounds.

Deep water currents

Deep water currents are also known as thermohaline circulation are usually found deeper in the ocean for around 400 meters down. It makes up a larger part of ocean current which is about 90%. Gravity, just like in the surface currents also plays a role in this currents but this is usually created by the difference in the water densities. Salinity and temperature of the water is what creates the density difference in the water (Koblinsky, Niiler, and Schmitz 1989)

Warm water always holds less salt and for this reason, it is less dense than cold water that holds more salt hence the density difference. As the warm water rises it leaves a void that is filled with cold water and as cold water rises it also leaves a space that is filled with warm water. This forms a thermohaline circulation. This thermohaline circulation can be also be referred to as the global conveyor belt because this movement of water forms a circle that acts as a submarine river that moves water all over the ocean (Peplow 2006).

Seafloor topography and the ocean's shape affects both surface and deep water currents because of the restrictions they give concerning where water can move.

Importance of ocean currents

Ocean currents have a significant importance in the movement of energy and moisture throughout the atmosphere. For this reason, they have a positive impact on the weather of the world. For instance, the Gulf Stream originates from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe and has warm currents. This warm current makes the water in the Gulf warm. Since the water is warm, the surface also is warm and this warms keeps Europe warmer than other places with the same latitude as Europe (Scheltema & Rudolf 1968)

The Humboldt currents, just like the Gulf affects the weather. When the currents of Chile and Peru coasts are cold they create productive waters that usually keep the coast cool and arid in the northern Chile. The climate in Chile usually changes when these currents are disrupted and El Nino is believed to be the main cause of the disturbance.

Like the movement of moisture and energy debris can be moved around the world after being trapped by the currents. This can be used in the formation of icebergs and trash islands and it can be created by man.

In the arctic ocean, along with the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the Labrador currents are formed there and it is very famous in the iceberg shipping into lanes in North of the Atlantic.

Navigation can also be assisted by currents plan. Shipping costs and also consumption of fuel can be reduced with the knowledge of the currents by avoiding trash and also icebergs. To reduce the amount of time that is spent on the sea, shipping companies and also sailing races always apply the knowledge of the currents to reduce the amount of time spent on the sea.

Last but not least, the world’s sea life can be distributed by the ocean currents. The movement of the many species always depends on the waves to move them from one location to another. It does not need necessarily be for breeding, it can be a movement over large seas.

Ocean currents as alternative energy

Ocean currents can be used as an alternative to energy in today world. Water carries an enormous amount of energy because of its density. This energy could be captured and used for instance in the driving of water turbines. Some countries like USA, Japan, China, and German are testing this kind of energy.

Ocean currents are also important to geographers, meteorologists and another scientist in the earth atmosphere relation. This is another alternative use besides the energy use.

Vertical stratification of water

The vertical appropriation of water densities in collections of fresh or salt water is known as stratification and is portrayed by the vertical density slope. The more the expansion in density with depth and the greater the vertical slope, the higher the steadiness of the stratification. At the point when the vertical density inclination is small or the density diminishes with depth, the stratification is unsteady. Stable stratification causes a diminishing in the vertical exchange of warmth, mass, and force. Unsteady stratification prompts serious vertical exchange in the body of water (Bianchi, Alejandro, Bianucci, Piola, Pino, Schloss, Poisson, & Balestrini 2005)

In seas and oceans, stratification is represented for the most part by varieties in water temperature and saltiness at the surface and furthermore beneath the surface, where the varieties are because of change in weather conditions and adiabatic procedures.

In bodies of fresh water, the temperature of the water greatest density is 4°C, and the stratification depends exclusively on temperature. For this situation, two sorts of stratification are conceivable: direct and inverse. Direct stratification happens when the temperature of all the water in the lake is not under 4°C. The hottest masses of water at that point lie at the surface; the cooler alternate masses, the greater the depth at which they are found. Inverse stratification happens when the water temperature is under 4°C. The water at the surface is then cooler than in the lower layers (Pollard, Raymond &June 2017, 36-43)

Hydrographic structure, as temperature or saltiness stratification, speed shear, and turbulent blending can make biologically critical highlights with horizontal scales running from 100s to 1000s of meters, and vertical sizes of centimeters to a couple of meters. As of late, the significance of fine-scale vertical structure in the water segment has turned out to be all the more recognized. Thin layers seem to happen in zones of the water segment containing vertical density jumps and speed shear. Where these layers happen they may fill in as habitats for exceptional connections in marine food webs. Gradients may moderate sinking rates and cause the gathering of flocs, marine snow, phytoplankton, and microbial groups in a few layers.

Regularly, these layers create solid optical or acoustic signs proposing expanded phyto-and zooplankton plenitude. Also, the speed shear related with these features may impact the transport of hatchlings and effective conveyance to juvenile nursery regions. Very little is thought about these structures in the New Jersey and Middle Atlantic Bight areas. In the New York Bight Apex, a zone that ensures the results of being almost a vast human populace, thin layers might be instrumental in the cycling of supplements and contaminants through the framework and coordinating them into higher trophic levels. Hence, it is basic for us to comprehend the structure and capacity of these interesting biological communities.

Regional distribution of salinity, temperature, and pressure in the ocean circulation

Temperature

The temperature of seawater is settled at the ocean surface by warm exchange with the air. The normal approaching vitality from the sun at the earth’s surface is about four times higher at the equator than at the poles. The normal infrared radiation heat loss to space is more consistent with latitudes. As a result there is a net contribution of warmth to the earth's surface into the tropical districts, furthermore, this is the place we locate the hottest surface seawater. Warmth is then exchanged from low to high scopes by twists in the wind and by currents in the ocean.

The geothermal heat motion from the inside of the Earth is for the most part inconsequential but in the region of aqueous vents at spreading edges and in generally dormant areas like the deep northern North Pacific. Water is transparent, so the radiation infiltrates some distance beneath the surface; heat is additionally conveyed to further levels by blending. Because of the high specific heat of water, diurnal also seasonal temperature varieties are relatively small compared with the shallow ends of water; maritime temperature varieties are on the request of a couple of degrees, with the exception of an extremely shallow water.

Most solar energy is retained inside a couple of meters of the sea surface, directly warming the surface water and giving the vitality to photosynthesis by marine plants and algae. Shorter wavelengths penetrate further than longer wavelengths. Infrared radiation is the first to be retained, trailed by red, etc. Warmth conduction from itself is extremely slow, so just a little extent of warmth is exchanged downwards by this process. The principal component to exchange warm further is turbulent blending by winds and waves, which sets up a mixed surface layer that can be as thick as 200-300 meters or considerably more at mid-latitudes in the untamed sea in winter or under 10 meters in shielded coastal front waters in summer.

Salinity distribution

The saltiness of surface seawater is controlled basically by the harmony between dissipation and precipitation. Subsequently, the most elevated salinities are found in the purported sub-tropical focal gyre areas focused at around 20° to 30° North and South, where dissipation is broad however precipitation is insignificant. The highest surface salinities, other than evaporating bowls, are found in the Red Sea.

Why is saltiness important?

1. Saltiness, alongside temperature, determines the density of seawater, and subsequently its vertical stream designs in thermohaline flow.

2. Saltiness records the physical procedures influencing a water mass when it was last at the surface.

precipitation/vanishing – salts barred from vapor

solidifying/defrosting – salts avoided from ice

3. Saltiness can be utilized as a moderate (constant) tracer for deciding the birthplace and mixing of water types.

Surface seawater salinities generally measure the local balance between dissipation and precipitation.

Low salinities happen close to the equator because of rain from rising environmental flow.

High salinities are run of the mill of the hot dry gyres flanking the equator (20-30 degrees scope) where climatic flow cells dive.

Saltiness can also be influenced by ocean ice formation/dissolving (e.g. around Antarctica)

Since the seawater marks of temperature and saltiness are obtained by processes at the air-ocean interface, we can also say that the density qualities of a parcel of seawater are resolved when it is at the ocean surface. Temperatures of seawater fluctuate greatly (- 1° to 30°C), though the saltiness run is little (35.0 more or less 2.0). The North Atlantic contains the hottest and saltiest water of the major seas, the Southern Ocean (the district around Antarctica) is the coldest, and the North Pacific has the least normal saltiness.

This densities mark is bolted into the water parcel when it sinks. The densities will be altered by mixing with different parcels of water, however, in the event that the density marks of all the end part water masses are known, this mixing can be disentangled and the extents of the diverse source waters to a given bundle can be resolved. To a first guess, the vertical thickness conveyance of the sea can be portrayed as a three-layered structure. The thickness reliance of seawater on saltiness, temperature, and weight has been resolved and figured, and conditions portraying this connection can be utilized. The densities of seawater is an element of temperature, weight, and saltiness and is a key oceanographic property. The normal density of seawater is close to 1.025gm cm-3.

While considering the solidness of a water section, it is helpful to have the capacity to ascertain the densities of a water relative to its surroundings from consideration just of its temperature and saltiness.

Ocean circulation

The chemistry and biology of the ocean are superimposed on the ocean’s flow, in this way it is vital to oversee briefly the powers driving this flow and give a few estimates of the transport rates. There are many reasons why it is vital to understand the basics of the circulation. For instance;

Poleward streaming, warm, surface, western currents boundaries and flows, for example, the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio profoundly affect the sea surface temperature (SST) and the atmosphere of land territories flanking the ocean

The El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) marvel is interannual irritation of the atmosphere framework described by debilitating of the exchange winds also, warming of the surface water in the central and eastern central Pacific Sea. The effects of ENSO are felt worldwide through disturbance of wind movement and weather patterns

Deep Circulation

The flow of the profound sea beneath the thermocline is known to as abyssal circulation. The currents are slow (~ 0.1 m/sec) and hard to quantify, however, the example of circulation can be unmistakably found in the properties of the deep water masses (temperature and saltiness). The geography of the ocean floor assumes a vital part in obliging the circulation and a significant part of the deep stream is channeled through entries, for example, the Denmark Straight, Gibbs Fracture Zone, Vema Channel, Samoan Passage, furthermore, Drake Passage

The Global Conveyor Belt (Rahmstorf & Stefan 2002, 207)

The sea transport line is one of the real components of the present sea dissemination system. A key component is that it conveys a tremendous measure of warmth to the North Atlantic and this has significant ramifications for past, present, and likely future atmospheres. Warm and salty surface streams in the western North Atlantic (e.g. the Gulf Stream) transport heat to the Norwegian-Greenland Seas where the warmth is exchanged to the environment. The cooling increases the density of ocean water bringing about the development of frosty and salty water in the North Atlantic. This water sinks to the depth and forms the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW).

Thermohaline going round drives a worldwide scale arrangement of currents called the "global conveyor belt." The conveyor belt starts on the surface of the sea close to the pole in the North Atlantic. Here, the water is chilled by cold temperatures. It also gets saltier in light of the fact that when ocean ice shapes, the salt does not solidify and is left in the surrounding water. The chilly water is currently denser, due to the additional salts, and sinks toward the sea base. Surface water moves in to supplant the sinking water, in this manner making an ebb and flow.

This deep water moves south, between the landmasses, past the equator, and down to the closures of Africa and South America. The current flow goes around the edge of Antarctica, where the water cools and sinks once more, as it does in the North Atlantic. In this way, the conveyor belt gets "revived." As it moves around Antarctica, two areas split off the conveyor belt and turn northward. One segment moves into the Indian Ocean, the other into the Pacific Ocean.

These two areas that split off warm up and turn out to be less dense as they travel northward toward the equator, with the goal that they ascend to the surface (upwelling). They at that point circle back southward and westbound toward the South Atlantic, at the end coming back toward the North Atlantic, where the cycle starts once more.

The transport line moves at much slower speeds (a couple of centimeters for each second) than wind-driven or tidal streams (tens of several centimeters for each second). It is assessed that any given cubic meter of water takes around 1,000 years to finish the adventure along the worldwide transport line. Also, the transport moves an enormous volume of water—more than 100 times the stream of the Amazon River (Ross, 1995).

The conveyor belt is likewise a key part of the worldwide sea supplement and carbon dioxide cycles. Warm surface waters are drained of supplements and carbon dioxide, however, they have improved again as they go through the transport line as profound or base layers. The base of the world's natural way of life relies upon the cool, supplement rich waters that help the development growth of algae and seaweed.

Gulf Stream ocean currents

Starting in the Caribbean and ending in the northern North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream System is one of the world's most strongly considered current systems. This broad western limit current assumes an imperative part in the poleward exchange of warmth and salt and serves to warm the European subcontinent. Conventional hydrographic examinations in this district incorporate those of Iselin (1936) and Gulf Stream '60 (Fuglister 1963, 184). The high level of mesoscale action related with this framework additionally has pulled in oceanographers. Research of these marvels have concentrated on the "snapshot" presentation of the region and have included examinations, for example, SYNOP, Gusto, and ABCE/SME. The Gulf Stream system is sufficiently effective to be promptly observed from space and was seen in even the most punctual satellite altimetry studies, for example, Seasat and later Geosat. Strong thermal gradient additionally made it visible to infrared estimations, as VHRR (Very High-Resolution Radiometer) readings utilizing the early NOAA satellites, THIR (Temperature and Humidity Infrared Radiometer) readings from Nimbus satellites, and Advanced VHRR (AVHRR) readings from later NOAA satellites.

The Gulf Stream starts upstream of Cape Hatteras, where the Florida Current stops to take after the mainland rack. The position of the Stream as it leaves the drift changes consistently. In the fall, it moves north, while in the winter and late-winter it moves south. Contrasted and the width of the current (around 100-200 km), the scope of this variety (30-40 km) is moderately small. However, late investigations recommend that the meridional scope of the yearly variation in stream way might be more like 100 km. Different qualities of the current are more factor. Critical changes in its vehicle, wandering, and structure can be seen through many timescales as it voyages upper east.

The transport of the Gulf Stream about copies downstream of Cape Hatteras at a rate of 8 Sv each 100 km (Knauss 1969). It creates the impression that the downstream increment in transport between Cape Hatteras and 55°W is generally because of expanded speeds in the deep waters of the Gulf Stream (Johns et al. 1995). This expansion in speed is believed to be related to profound distribution cells discovered north and south of the present (Hall and Fofonoff 1993). Cases of these distributions incorporate little distributions east of the Bahamas (Olson et al. 1984; Lee et al. 1990), the Worthington Gyre south of the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of 55° and 75°W (Worthington 1976), and the Northern Recirculation Gyre north of the Gulf Stream (Hogg et al. 1986). Late investigations recommend that the distributions relentlessly increment the vehicle in the Gulf Stream from 30 Sv in the Florida Current to a most extreme of 150 Sv at 55°W (Hendry 1982,).

The region of the Gulf Stream's branch point is exceedingly unique and subject to quick change. The high level of mesoscale movement, alongside quick changes in the significant surface streams, make this an extremely troublesome locale to study. Some portion of this inconstancy emerges from the high measure of vortex action. Vortex dynamic vitality along both the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current is at peak value here (Richardson 1983, 19). There is also the presence of elongated, high- pressure cells along the seaward side of the North Atlantic Current. These weight cells might be connected to upheavals of Labrador Current water from the Grand Banks that prompt broad mixing toward the end of the Gulf Stream

Bibliography

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Pollard, Raymond, and Jane Read. "Circulation, stratification and seamounts in the Southwest Indian Ocean." Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 136 (2017): 36-43.

Molinari, Robert L., Donald Olson, and Gilles Reverdin. "Surface current distributions in the tropical Indian Ocean derived from compilations of surface buoy trajectories." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 95, no. C5 (1990): 7217-7238.

McCullough, J. "Near-surface ocean current sensors: Problems and performance." In Current Measurement, Proceedings of the 1978 IEEE First Working Conference on, vol. 1, pp. 9- 33. IEEE, 1978.

Ellison, Christopher RW, Mark R. Chapman, and Ian R. Hall. "Surface and deep ocean interactions during the cold climate event 8200 years ago." Science 312, no. 5782 (2006): 1929-1932.

Fuglister, Frederick C. "Gulf stream'60." Progress in oceanography 1 (1963): 265IN9273IN11275-272274IN14373.

Richardson, P. L. "Gulf stream rings." In Eddies in marine science, pp. 19-45. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1983.

Hendry, R. M. "On the structure of the deep Gulf Stream." Journal of Marine Research (1982).

Knauss, John A. "A note on the transport of the Gulf Stream." Deep-Sea Res. 16 (1969): 117- 123.

Peplow, Mark. "Ocean currents flip out." Nature (2006).

Calsbeek, Ryan, and Thomas B. Smith. "Ocean currents mediate evolution in island lizards." Nature 426, no. 6966 (2003): 552-555.

Chelton, Dudley B., Michael G. Schlax, Michael H. Freilich, and Ralph F. Milliff. "Satellite measurements reveal persistent small-scale features in ocean winds." science 303, no. 5660 (2004): 978-983.

Stramma, Lothar, and Matthew England. "On the water masses and mean circulation of the South Atlantic Ocean." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 104, no. C9 (1999): 20863-20883.

Koblinsky, Cl J., P. P. Niiler, and W. J. Schmitz. "Observations of wind‐forced deep ocean currents in the North Pacific." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 94, no. C8 (1989): 10773-10790.

Scheltema, Rudolf S. "Dispersal of larvae by equatorial ocean currents and its importance to the zoogeography of shoal-water tropical species." Nature 217, no. 5134 (1968): 1159-1162.

Bianchi, Alejandro A., Laura Bianucci, Alberto R. Piola, Diana Ruiz Pino, Irene Schloss, Alain Poisson, and Carlos F. Balestrini. "Vertical stratification and air‐sea CO2 fluxes in the Patagonian shelf." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 110, no. C7 (2005).

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Essay on the oceans.

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Read this essay to learn about the Oceans. After reading this essay you will learn about: 1. Discovery of the Oceans 2. Relief of the Oceans 3. Salinity 4. Oceanic Deposits 5. Temperature of Ocean Water 6. Movements of Ocean Current.

Contents:  

• Essay on the Movements of Ocean Current

Essay # 1. Discovery of the Oceans:

The oceans, comprising more than 70 per cent or 140 million square miles of the earth’s surface, have tremendous potential waiting to be developed. Besides being a source of food—fish, mammals, reptiles, salt and other marine foodstuffs—the tides can be harnessed to provide power.

Formal oceanographic investigation began only with the British expedition of the Challenger (1873-1876), the first successful world-wide deep-sea expedition.

Oceanography, the science of the oceans, has become such an important subject in recent years that researches into the deep seas have been conduc­ted by many institutions, universities, government ministries and other international organizations.

The most famous international oceanographic re­search centre is the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea with its headquarters in Copenhagen. Ocean exploration for the observation and recording of oceanographic data is a very expensive matter.

It involves the operation and maintenance of specially equipped vessels in mid- ocean for long periods, and large-scale oceano­graphic researches are” thus best undertaken by international bodies. The older echo-sounding tech­niques have now been replaced by radar sounding and electrical echo devices to find the precise depth; of ocean floors and map the relief of the oceans.

Trained frog-men equipped with modern breathing apparatus are employed to gather valuable information from great depths. Deep sea core samples are obtained by boring for the study of the oceanic deposits—the various kinds of oozes, muds and clays.

Automatic-recording thermometers and other sensitive instruments can be lowered to any required depth by stationary vessels with laboratory facilities for processing any required data.

For the observation and measurement of current flow, various kinds of current meters using propellers, vanes or pendulums have been designed. Sealed bottles and other float­ing objects containing instructions for reporting their precise time and place of discovery are released in large numbers to compute the rate and direction of drift and current flow.

With all these modem techniques at the disposal of the oceanographers, our knowledge of the mysteries of the oceans is greatly increased. But there is still much to be discovered.

Essay # 2. Relief of the Oceans:

The ocean basins are in many ways similar to the land surface. There are submarine ridges, plateaux, canyons, plains and trenches. A section drawn across an ocean (Fig. 92) illustrates the typical submarine relief features.

(i) The continental shelf:

This is, in fact, the sea­ward extension of the continent from the shoreline to the continental edge marked, approximately, by the 100 fathom (600 feet) isobath (isobaths are contours marking depths below sea level).

The continental shelf is thus a shallow platform whose width varies greatly, from a few miles in the North Pacific off the continent of North America, to over 100 miles off north-west Europe. In some places where the coasts are extremely mountainous, such as the Rocky Mountain and Andean coasts, the conti­nental shelf may be entirely absent.

Off broad low­land coasts like those of Arctic Siberia, a maximum width of 750 miles has been recorded! A width of 20 to 100 miles is generally encountered. The angle of the slope is also variable, and is normally least where the continental shelf is widest. A gradient of 1 in 500 is common to most continental shelves.

Many regard the continental shelf as part of the continent submerged due to a rise in sea level, e.g. at the close of the Ice Age, when the ice in the tem­perate latitudes melted and raised the sea level by several hundred feet.

Some smaller continental shelves could have been caused by wave erosion where the land is being eroded by the sea as shown in Fig. 93. Conversely such shelves might have been formed by the deposition of land-derived or river- borne materials on the off-shore terrace as in Fig. 94.

The continental shelves are of great geographical significance for the following reasons:

(a) Their shallowness enables sunlight to pene­trate through the water, which encourages the growth of minute plants and other microscopic organisms. They are thus rich in plankton on which millions of surface and bottom-feeding fishes thrive. The con­tinental shelves are therefore the richest fishing grounds in the world, e.g. the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, the North Sea and the Sunda Shelf.

(b) Their limited depth and gentle slope keep out cold under-currents and increase the height of tides. This sometimes hinders shipping and other marine activities since ships can only enter and leave port on the tide. Most of the world’s greatest seaports including Southampton, London, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Hong Kong and Singapore are located on continental shelves.

(ii) The continental slope:

At the edge of the continental shelf, there is an abrupt change of gradient to about 1 in 20, forming the continental slope.

(iii) The deep-sea plain:

This is the undulating plain lying two to three miles below sea level, and covering two-thirds of the ocean floor, generally termed the abyssal plain. It was once thought to be featureless, but modern sounding devices reveal that the abyssal plain is far from being level.

It has extensive subma­rine plateaux, ridges, trenches, basins, and oceanic islands that rise above sea level in the midst of oceans, e.g. the Azores, Ascension Island.

(iv) The ocean deeps:

These are the long, narrow trenches that plunge as great ocean deeps to a depth of 5,000 fathoms or 30,000 feet! Contrary to our expectations, most of the deepest trenches are not located in the midst of oceans. They are more often found close to the continents, particularly in the Pacific Ocean, where several deep trenches have been sounded.

The greatest known ocean deep is the Mariana Trench near Guam Island, which is more than 36,000 feet deep. We can see from this that ocean trenches are greater in magnitude than the highest mountains on land, for the highest peak Mt. Everest is only 29,028 feet.

Other notable ocean deeps include the Mindanao Deep (35,000 feet), the Tonga Trench (31,000 feet) and the Japanese Trench (28,000 feet), all in the Pacific Ocean.

Essay # 3. Salinity of the Ocean:

Almost every known chemical element can be found in varying proportions in the oceans whose most characteristic feature is their salinity, in contrast to the fresh water of lakes and streams. All sea water contains large amounts of dissolved mineral matter of which sodium chloride or common salt alone constitutes more than 77 per cent.

The other more important compounds include magnesium, calcium and potassium, while the rest are distinguish­able only in traces of very minute quantities. Due to the free movement of ocean water, the proportions of different salts, remain remarkably constant in all oceans and even to great depths. But the degree of concentration of the salt solution in oceans does vary appreciably in different areas.

This is expressed as salinity, the degree of saltiness of water, either as a percentage or more often in parts per thousand. Variations are shown in salinity distribution maps by isohalines, lines joining places having an equal degree of salinity.

Generally speaking, the average salinity of the oceans is 35.2 %0, about 35 parts of salt in 1,000 parts of water. In the Baltic Sea, where there is much dilution by fresh water and melting ice, the salinity is much lower, only about 7%0. In the Red Sea where there is much surface evaporation and fewer rivers to bring in fresh water, the average salinity increases to 39%0.

In enclosed seas, which are areas of inland drainage, such as the Caspian Sea, the salinity is very- high, 180 %0, and in the Dead Sea of Palestine, a salinity of 250 %0 has been recorded. The highest salinity is perhaps, that of Lake Van, in Asia Minor, with 330 %0.

It is a salt lake, and salts are collected from its shores. The density of the water is so high that in Lake Van or the Dead Sea, it is almost impos­sible to sink. Beginner-swimmers will find it much easier to float here than anywhere else! The variation of salinity in the various seas and oceans is affected by the following factors.

(i) The rate of evaporation:

The waters fringing the High Pressure Belts of the Trade Wind Deserts, between 20° and 30°N. and S., have high salinity because of the high rate of evaporation caused by high temperature and low humidity. The temperate oceans have lower salinity due to the lower tempera­ture and a lower rate of evaporation.

(ii) The amount of fresh water added by precipitation, streams and icebergs:

Salinity is lower than the average 35 %0 in equatorial waters because of the heavy daily rainfall and high relative humidity. Oceans into which huge rivers like the Amazon, Congo, Ganges, Irrawaddy and Mekong drain, have much of their saltiness diluted and have a lower salinity.

The Baltic, Arctic and Antarctic waters have a salinity of less than 32 %0 because of the colder climate with little evaporation and because much fresh water is added from the melting of icebergs, as well as by several large pole ward-bound rivers, e.g. Ob, Lena, Yenisey, and Mackenzie.

(iii) The degree of water mixing by currents:

In wholly or partially enclosed seas such as the Caspian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf, the waters do not mix freely with the ocean water and they are not penetrated by ocean currents.

Salinity is high, often over 37%0. In areas of inland drainage without links with the oceans, continuous evaporation under an almost cloudless sky causes the accumulation of salts around the shores.

In the open oceans where currents freely flow, salinity tends to be near the average 35 %0 or even a little lower. The range of salinity is negligible where there is free mixing of water by surface and sub-surface currents.

Essay # 4. Oceanic Deposits of the Ocean:

Materials eroded from the earth which are not deposited by rivers or at the coast are eventually dropped on the ocean floor. The dominant process is slow sedimentation where the eroded particles very slowly filter through the ocean water and settle upon one another in layers.

The thickness of the layer of sediments is still unknown. Its rate of accumulation is equally uncertain. Generally speak­ing, we may classify all the oceanic deposits as either muds, oozes or clays.

(i) The muds:

These are terrigenous deposits be­cause they are derived from land and are mainly deposited on the continental shelves. The muds are referred to as blue, green or red muds; their colouring depends upon their chemical content.

(ii) The oozes:

These are pelagic deposits because they are derived from the oceans. They are made of the shelly and skeletal remains of marine micro­organisms with calcareous or siliceous parts. Oozes have a very fine, flour-like texture and either occur as accumulated deposits or float about in suspension.

(iii) The clays:

These occur mainly as red clays in the deeper parts of the ocean basins, and are particularly abundant in the Pacific Ocean. Red clay is believed to be an accumulation of volcanic dust blown out from volcanoes during volcanic eruptions.

Essay # 5. Temperature of Ocean Water:

Like land masses, ocean water varies in tempe­rature from place to place both at the surface and at great depths. Since water warms up and cools down much more slowly than the land, the annual range of temperature in any part of the ocean is very much smaller.

It is less than 10°F for most of the open seas. Generally, the mean annual temperature of the surface ocean water decreases from about 70°F. in equatorial areas to 55°F. at latitudes 45°N. and S., and drops almost to freezing-point at the poles.

The reduction of temperature with latitude is however never constant, because of the interference by warm and cold currents, winds and air masses. Unlike the solid earth, ocean water is mobile and variations in the temperature between different parts of the oceans can be expected.

Water flowing out from the Arctic and Antarctic as cold currents, such as the Labrador Current off north-east Canada, tends to reduce the surface-water temperature. Ports of eastern Canada even at 45°N are thus icebound for almost half the year. In the same way, coasts warmed by warm currents, such as the North Atlantic Drift, have their surface temperature raised. The Norwegian coast, even at latitudes 60° to 70°N. is ice-free throughout the year!

The highest water temperatures are found in enclosed seas in the tropics, e.g. the Red Sea which records a temperature of 85° to 100°F. The Arctic and Antarctic waters are so cold that their surface is permanently frozen as pack-ice down to a depth of several feet. In the warmer summer, parts of the ice break off as icebergs that both dilute the water and lower the surface temperature of surrounding ice-free seas.

The temperature of the oceans also varies verti­cally with increasing depth. It decreases rapidly for the first 200 fathoms, at the rate of 1 °F. for every 10 fathoms, and then more slowly until a depth of 500 fathoms is reached. Beyond this, the drop is scarcely noticeable, less than 1°F. for every 100 fathoms.

In the ocean deeps below 2,000 fathoms (12,000 feet), the water is uniformly cold, just a little above freezing-point. It is interesting to note that even in the deepest ocean trenches, more than 6 miles below the surface, the water never freezes. It is estimated that over 80 per cent of all ocean waters have a temperature between 35° and 40°F.

Essay # 6. Movements of Ocean Current: 

Ocean currents are large masses of surface water that circulate in regular patterns around the oceans, as shown in the world map in Fig. 95. Those that flow from equatorial regions pole wards have a higher surface temperature and are warm currents.

Some of the underlying factors are explained below:

(i) The planetary winds:

Between the equator and the tropics blow the Trade Winds which move equatorial waters pole wards and westwards and warm the eastern coasts of continents. For example the North-East Trade Winds move the North Equa­torial Current and its derivatives, the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream Drift to warm the southern and eastern coasts of U.S.A.

Similarly, the South-East Trade Winds drive the South Equatorial Current which warms the eastern coast of Brazil as the warm Brazilian Current.

In the temperate latitudes blow the Westerlies. Though they are less reliable than the Trade Winds, they result in a north-easterly flow of water in the northern hemisphere, so that the warm Gulf Stream is driven to the western coast of Europe as the North Atlantic Drift.

In a similar manner, the Westerlies of the southern hemisphere, drive the West Wind Drift equator wards as the Peruvian Current off South America and the Benguela Current off southern Africa. The planetary winds are probably the dominant influence on the flow of ocean currents.

The strongest evidence of prevailing winds on current flows is seen in the North Indian Ocean. Here the direction of the currents changes completely with the direction of the monsoon winds which come from the north-east in winter and south-west in summer.

(ii) Temperatures:

There is much difference in the temperature of ocean waters at the equator and at the poles. As warm water is lighter and rises, and cold water is denser and sinks, warm equatorial waters move slowly along the surface pole wards, while the heavier cold waters of the polar regions creep slowly along the bottom of the sea equator wards.

(iii) Salinity:

The salinity of ocean water varies from place to place. Waters of high salinity are denser than waters of low salinity. Hence waters of low salinity flow on the surface of waters of high salinity while waters of high salinity flow at the bottom to­wards waters of low salinity.

For example in the Mediterranean region, there is great difference in salinity between the waters of the open Atlantic and those of the partially enclosed Mediterranean Sea. The less saline water of the Atlantic flows on the surface into the Mediterranean, and this is com­pensated for by an outflow of denser bottom water from the Mediterranean.

(iv) The earth’s rotation:

The earth’s rotation de­flects freely moving objects, including ocean currents, to the right. In the northern hemisphere this is a clockwise direction (e.g. the circulation of the Gulf Stream Drift and the Canaries Current). In the southern hemisphere it is an anti-clockwise direction (e.g. the Brazilian Current and the West Wind Drift).

A land mass always obstructs and diverts a current. For instance, the tip of southern Chile diverts part of the West Wind Drift northwards as the Peruvian Current. Similarly the ‘shoulder’ of Brazil at Cape Sao Roque, divides the west-flowing equatorial currents into the Cayenne Current which flows north-westwards and the Brazilian Current which flows south-westwards.

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Watch CBS News

What time the 2024 solar eclipse started, reached peak totality and ended

By Sarah Maddox

Updated on: April 9, 2024 / 5:04 AM EDT / CBS News

The 2024 solar eclipse will be visible across North America today. As the moon's position between the Earth and sun casts a shadow on North America, that shadow, or umbra, will travel along the surface from west to east at more than 1,500 miles per hour along the path of totality . 

That means the eclipse will start, peak and end at different times — as will the moments of total darkness along the path of totality — and the best time to view the eclipse depends on where you are located. Some places along the path will have more totality time than others.

In Texas, the south-central region had clouds in the forecast , but it was better to the northeast, according to the National Weather Service. The best eclipse viewing weather was expected in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, as well as in Canada's New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

What time does the 2024 total solar eclipse start?

The total solar eclipse will emerge over the South Pacific Ocean before the shadow falls across North America, beginning in parts of Mexico. The path of totality , where onlookers can witness the moon fully blocking the sun (through eclipse viewing glasses for safety ), is expected to first make landfall near the city of Mazatlán around 9:51 a.m. MT. 

The total solar eclipse will cross over the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas, where it will emerge over Eagle Pass at 12:10 p.m. CT and then peak at about 1:27 p.m. CT.

In Dallas, NASA data shows the partial eclipse will first become visible at 12:23 p.m. CT and peak at 1:40 p.m. CT. The next states in the path of totality are Oklahoma and Arkansas, where the eclipse begins in Little Rock at 12:33 p.m. CT. 

Cleveland will see the beginning of the eclipse at 1:59 p.m. ET. Darkness will start spreading over the sky in Buffalo, New York, at 2:04 p.m. ET. Then, the eclipse will reach northwestern Vermont, including Burlington, at 2:14 p.m. ET. Parts of New Hampshire and Maine will also follow in the path of totality before the eclipse first reaches the Canadian mainland  at 3:13 p.m. ET.

Although the experience won't be exactly the same, viewers in all the contiguous U.S. states outside the path of totality will still be able to see a partial eclipse. Some places will see most of the sun blocked by the moon, including Washington, D.C., where the partial eclipse will start at 2:04 p.m. ET and peak at about 3:20 p.m. ET.

In Chicago, viewers can start viewing the partial eclipse at 12:51 p.m. CT, with the peak arriving at 2:07 p.m. CT.  In Detroit, viewers will be able to enjoy a near-total eclipse beginning at 1:58 p.m. ET and peaking at 3:14 p.m. ET.

New York City will also see a substantial partial eclipse, beginning at 2:10 p.m. ET and peaking around 3:25 p.m. ET.

In Boston it will begin at 2:16 p.m. ET and peak at about 3:29 p.m. ET.

The below table by NASA shows when the eclipse will start, peak and end in 13 cities along the eclipse's path.

What time will the solar eclipse reach peak totality?

Millions more people will have the chance to witness the total solar eclipse this year than during the last total solar eclipse , which was visible from the U.S. in 2017. 

The eclipse's peak will mean something different for cities within the path of totality and for those outside. Within the path of totality, darkness will fall for a few minutes. The longest will last more than 4 minutes, but most places will see between 3.5 and 4 minutes of totality. In cities experiencing a partial eclipse, a percentage of the sun will be obscured for more than two hours.

Mazatlán is set to experience totality at 11:07 am PT. Dallas will be able to see the moon fully cover the sun at 1:40 p.m. CT. Little Rock will start to see the full eclipse at 1:51 p.m. CT, Cleveland at 3:13 p.m. ET and Buffalo at 3:18 p.m. ET. Totality will reach Burlington at 3:26 p.m. ET before moving into the remaining states and reaching Canada around 4:25 p.m.

Outside the path of totality, 87.4% of the sun will be eclipsed in Washington, D.C. at 3:20 p.m. ET, and Chicago will have maximum coverage of 93.9% at 2:07 p.m. CT. New York City is much closer to the path of totality this year than it was in 2017; it will see 89.6% coverage at 3:25 p.m. EDT. 

Detroit is another city that will encounter a near-total eclipse, with 99.2% maximum coverage at 3:14 p.m. ET. Boston will see 92.4% coverage at 3:29 p.m. ET.

What time will the solar eclipse end?

The eclipse will leave continental North America from Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NT, according to NASA.

At the beginning of the path of totality in Mazatlán, the eclipse will be over by 12:32 p.m. PT, and it will leave Dallas at 3:02 p.m. CT. The eclipse will end in Little Rock at 3:11 p.m. CT, Cleveland at 4:29 p.m. CDT and Buffalo at 4:32 p.m. ET. Burlington won't be far behind, with the eclipse concluding at 4:37 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, the viewing will end in Chicago at 3:21 p.m. CT, Washington, D.C. at 4:32 p.m. ET, and New York City at 4:36 p.m. ET. 

In Detroit, the partial eclipse will disappear at 4:27 p.m. ET, and in Boston, it will be over at 4:39 p.m. ET.

How long will the eclipse last in total?

The total solar eclipse will begin in Mexico at 11:07 a.m. PT and leave continental North America at 5:16 p.m. NT. From the time the partial eclipse first appears on Earth to its final glimpses before disappearing thousands of miles away, the celestial show will dazzle viewers for about 5 hours, according to timeanddate.com . 

The length of the total solar eclipse at points along the path depends on the viewing location. The longest will be 4 minutes and 28 seconds, northwest of Torreón, Mexico. Near the center of the path, totality takes place for the longest periods of time, according to NASA.

Spectators will observe totality for much longer today than during the 2017 eclipse , when the longest stretch of totality was 2 minutes and 32 seconds.

The moon's shadow seen on Earth today, called the umbra, travels at more than 1,500 miles per hour, according to NASA. It would move even more quickly if the Earth rotated in the opposite direction.

What is the longest a solar eclipse has ever lasted?

The longest known totality was 7 minutes and 28 seconds in 743 B.C. However, NASA says this record will be broken in 2186 with a 7 minute, 29 second total solar eclipse. The next total solar eclipse visible from parts of the U.S. won't happen until Aug. 23, 2044.

Sarah Maddox has been with CBS News since 2019. She works as an associate producer for CBS News Live.

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