Marine Botany:currents

Front 1

Coriolis effect

Back 1

Result of earth's rotation on weather patterns and ocean currents which makes storms clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere

Front 2

Intertropical convergence zone

Back 2

A narrow zone near the equator where the northern and southern air masses converge producing low atmospheric pressure

Front 3

Ekman spiral

Back 3

A structure of currents of winds near a horizontal boundary in which the flow direction rotates as one moves from the boundary.

Front 4

How does the Ekman spiral form

Back 4

When surface water molecules are dragged by the wind, they drag deeper layers of water molecules below them.

Deeper waters are deflected to the right in the Northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere

Each successively deeper layer moves more slowly to the left or right

Creating a spiral effect.

Front 5

The two types of surface currents

Back 5

Converging currents - lower thermocline, nutricline and halocline

Diverging currents - firm areas of up welling which disrupt thermocline, nutricline and halocline

Front 6

What drives deep water currents

Back 6

Density differentials of various water masses

Front 7

Langmuir circulation

Back 7

Surface forms of circulation that involve divergent and convergent zones as a result of wind forcing