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Currents

Masses in motion

Surface Currents

Propelled by the wind friction drags water, faster currents with limited amount of water

Deep Currents

Powered by density changes, origin of high latitudes, dense/cold slight density change (enough to separate from surface) Very Slow moving

High Pressure

Cold areas, air sinks

Low Pressure

By the equator, warm air rises

Six-cell model

Cells of circulating air in which warm air rises then falls back in at 30 degrees and keeps going in circles

Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)

The Equator in which air from the north and south meet, region near the equator where trade winds meet → low pressure

Doldrums

At the equator describing more vertical movements of air compared to horizontal movements of air, little to no wind due to weak pressure gradients

Trade Winds

Air from the north and south that go in opposite directions into the equator

Coriolis Effect

Deflection of the winds going right to left, minimal effect on the Equator high effects on the Poles, the apparent deflection of moving objects due to Earth's rotation

Ekman Spiral

Is continued deflection with depth in water movements, wants to move water in right angles into the center of the ocean

Geostrophic flow

Is the combination of wind, coriolis effect and gravity keeping the surface currents moving the gyres, preventing the piling up in the ocean, resulting in circular flow around high/low pressure zones

Oceanic gyres

Are the circular patterns of surface currents formed by global wind patterns and Earth's rotation

Western Boundary Current

Is narrow and fast, move poleward

Eastern Boundary Current

Is broad and slow, move equatorward

Eddies

Swirling masses of water that pass across currents, circular currents of water formed when main flow separates from its path

Gulf of Mexico Loop Current

It's the main current of the gulf slightly past the gulf stream

Vertical stratification

Layering of water based on density differences

Mixed layer

Find surface currents, warm and illuminated by the sun, more diluted/fresh due to rain and rivers entering into the sea

Pycnocline

Density increases rapidly, temperature drops due to being past the influence from the sun, salinity increases

Deep layer

About 80% of the ocean water, deep, dark, and cold, where we see the deep ocean current moving around

Deep water masses

Large volumes of deep water with distinct temperature and salinity characteristics

AABW

Antarctic Bottom water, deepest coldest water, densest ocean water, forms near Antarctica

Upwelling

Rising of water, can occur in a bunch of different places, cold since its coming from the deep and nutrient dense getting food from the land and decaying animals.

Equatorial Upwelling

Water separates from the equator the deep water goes up to replace.

Downwelling

Sinking of water, usually happens when the water gets cold, cold water is more dense causing it to sink.

Equatorial Counter Current

Small current flowing along from the equator in the opposite direction from the trade winds.

Marine Sediments

Erosion- Breakdown and removal of rocks and minerals, main process in land the wearing down and ends in the ocean.

Deposition

Settling and accumulation of sediments, laying down of the sediments in the ocean.

Minerals

Building blocks of the rocks.

Quartz

Common mineral, tough/resistant, most sand grains being made in the beach.

Feldspars

Original Rock, more common than quartz, in granite, are converted into clay minerals when contacted with water.

Clays

Fine particles from weathering of feldspar, Most Common mineral of them all.

Calcite

Easily dissolved in water, the minerals animals use to make their shells.

Sediments

Are compacted to create rocks.

Igneous

Most abundant rock, Basalt (Ocean Crust), Granite (Continental Crust).

Sedimentary rocks

Formed in the surface sediments of the earth from erosion/deposition, compaction and cementation of sediments.

Rock cycle

Overtime any rock can become each other, change from one type to another through melting, weathering, erosion, and pressure.

Lithogenous

Made from bits/pieces of older rocks rocks eroded from land to deposited to sea.

Biggest to Smallest

Gravel/sand/mud (clay grains mixed with water, most common).

Terrestrial source

Land Source, come from land.

Graded Bedding

Bigger grains fall first to the bottom the finer grains stay on top.

Neritic

In shallow water above the continental shelf, masses of lithogenous (mostly), shallow depths.

Pelagic

Deep water beyond the abyssal plain, Found in deep ocean basins; fine-grained, mainly biogenous or hydrogenous.

Biogenous

Shells formed from living things, Derived from organisms (biological origin).

Oozes

Most Common looks like mud its plankton shells and water.

Calcium carbonate

What shells are mostly made of also called Calcite.

CCD (Carbonate Compensation Depth)

Below Carbonate Compensation Depth, calcium carbonate (shells) dissolves.

Hydrogenous

Minerals that have been dissolved in water then crystallized in water, Precipitated directly from seawater through chemical reactions.

Halite

Most common is table salt.

Manganese nodules

Proving metal was dissolved in water.

Cosmogenous

Stuff from space, meteorites, space dust, Least abundant type of sediment.