Activities for Episode Twelve: Deep Connections Activity 12.2: The Surface and Depths of Ocean Circulation
II. Characteristics of Surface versus Deep-Sea Currents In the table below, describe the way in which a particular feature or process affects surface and/or deep-sea circulation. Use the video episode, your textbook and the useful web sites to supplement your comparison. If that feature or process has no effect, then indicate so.
Features or Processes Surface Currents Deep-Sea Currents Speed of Flow for...
Volume of Flow for...
Vertical vs Horizontal Component of Direction for...
Effect of Winds on...
Effect of Evaporation and Precipitation on...
Effect of Heating and Cooling on...
Effect of Gravity on...
Effect of Coriolis effect on...
Effect of Earth’s rotation on...
Effect of Bottom topography on...
Effect of Pressure on...
Effect of Tides on...
III. Compare and Contrast
Using the information you provided in the table above, answer the following questions:
1. Compare and contrast the role of surface current and deep-sea currents in distributing heat, gases, and planktonic larve throughout the oceans. Identify ways in which surface currents and deep sea currents differ in their impact and importance on the distribution of these materials.
2. Compare and contrast the benefits and limitations of traveling across the surface of the ocean or traveling at submarine depths. Include in your discussion the ways that surface currents and/or deep water currents impact travel at the surface or in the depths of the sea.
3. Compare and contrast the ways in which oceanographers measure surface and deep-sea currents. Include in your discussion the challenges that oceanographers face when studying either surface or deep-sea currents.
Useful web sites:
A Primer on Ocean Currents: Measurements and Lingo of Physical Oceanographers, by Michael McCartney, WHOI http://www.whoi.edu/coastal-briefs/Coastal-Brief-94-05.html
Aspects of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/IntroOc/lecture06.html
Physical Oceanography Demo Movies http://www.po.gso.uri.edu/demos/
Fact Sheet: Thermohaline Circulation http://www.climate.unibe.ch/~christof/div/fact4thc.html
Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation http://www.clivar.org/publications/other_pubs/iplan/iip/pd3.htm
Ocean Currents http://geosun1.sjsu.edu/~dreed/130/lab10/30.html Surface versus Deep-Sea Currents http://www.cnr.usu.edu/online/ocean/2002/chap7out_2002.pdf
Outposts in the Ocean http://www.whoi.edu/home/about/oceanus42_no1_outposts.html