Chapter 7 — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00Hi there, I'm Dr. Jeff Ashley and
- 0:02welcome to chapter 7 which deals with o
- 0:05ocean
- 0:08circulation. As you may recall in the
- 0:10last chapter we discussed what was going
- 0:12on in the atmosphere mainly that lower
- 0:15layer that we call the troposphere where
- 0:17our weather happens and we mentioned
- 0:19that there are certain cells both in the
- 0:21northern hemisphere and the southern
- 0:23hemis hemisphere and we went over what's
- 0:26driving that. Those were pretty much
- 0:28north south or south north movements in
- 0:30these circulation cells. We're going to
- 0:33see some similar cells that explain how
- 0:35the ocean at least the surface waters of
- 0:37the ocean move. So this chapter deals
- 0:41with ocean currents and most of the
- 0:43ocean currents that we'll be discussing
- 0:45are ocean currents that are moving that
- 0:47top layer of ocean. Okay, previous
- 0:51chapters we said that there's a top
- 0:53layer of ocean that is less dense
- 0:55because of density differences and
- 0:58there's a bottom layer that is
- 1:01sequestered or sits on bottom of that
- 1:04top layer and we call that the deep
- 1:06water. So imagine the surface waters and
- 1:09the deep waters and they are sort of
- 1:11disconnected because of the density
- 1:12differences density based on temperature
- 1:15and also density based on salinity.
- 1:18So with this in mind, this two-layering
- 1:20system, a lot of this chapter deals with
- 1:23the movement of that top layer, the
- 1:26surface of the ocean. And don't think
- 1:27it's just that little couple centimeters
- 1:29of the surface. It goes down meters to
- 1:31even a kilometer or more deep. We call
- 1:35these surface ocean currents. And it's
- 1:37just moving
- 1:39seawater. The transfer of heat from
- 1:41warmer to colder cooler areas happens
- 1:44because of this movement, as we're going
- 1:46to see in this chapter. And the movement
- 1:48is very similar to the major wind belts.
- 1:51So we talked about the westerlys and the
- 1:53trade winds in the last chapter. Those
- 1:55are the primary winds that are hitting
- 1:57the sea surface and enabling it to
- 2:00move. Ocean currents also affect coastal
- 2:03climates. As we mentioned before, I
- 2:05brought up the case of California and
- 2:07it's very temperate or nonvarying
- 2:10climate and that's due to the cold
- 2:12currents off that shore.
- 2:15We will also in this chapter discuss
- 2:17deep ocean currents. So rather than the
- 2:20surface currents, these are the deep
- 2:22ocean currents, cold, very dense water
- 2:24sitting on top of that less dense
- 2:26surface water. We'll get to that at the
- 2:28very end. Although it's important much
- 2:30of this chapter, as I said, are dealing
- 2:31with these surface currents. So again,
- 2:34breaking down the currents, we will
- 2:35primarily be discussing surface currents
- 2:38and they are primarily wind driven and
- 2:40they're primarily a horizontal motion.
- 2:43So imagine the two layering system of
- 2:45these deep ocean and the surface. Wind
- 2:48blows on top and it allows horizontal
- 2:52movement. Deep ocean currents are driven
- 2:54by densities uh differences caused by
- 2:58temperature and salinity as we saw in
- 3:00past chapters. However, it includes both
- 3:02horizontal movement and sometimes up and
- 3:05down or vertical
- 3:07movement. So how do you measure surface
- 3:10currents? Early oceanographers just used
- 3:13to throw bottles with notes in them,
- 3:15message in a bottle, and that's how they
- 3:16did it. And it worked. It allowed people
- 3:19to piece together how these surface
- 3:21currents were moving, in what direction,
- 3:23and even at what
- 3:25velocity. Modern-day oceanographers now
- 3:27use equipment such as this. This is a
- 3:30drift current meter, and it's deployed
- 3:33in the sea surface of the top layers. It
- 3:35has some buoyancy compartments that will
- 3:38keep it afloat. As currents pass by,
- 3:41this quadrant moves and sends the
- 3:44information on the velocity of the
- 3:46current and also its direction.
- 3:49Sometimes information on surface
- 3:50currents are garnered by mistakes. And
- 3:53your book is a gives a couple of these
- 3:55examples. One famous one was a cargo
- 3:58ship that was carrying Nike shoes. The
- 4:00cargo containers were displaced into the
- 4:03ocean, the surface of the ocean by a
- 4:06storm. And eventually those cargo
- 4:09containers opened up and released a
- 4:11whole bunch of Nike shoes. Well, people
- 4:13began to uh find these shoes on the
- 4:16shores of British Columbia and also
- 4:18Alaska and also down the Pacific North
- 4:21Coast to Oregon and even further. And
- 4:23this allowed oceanographers once people
- 4:25collected the shoes and identified them
- 4:28to begin to understand the surface
- 4:30currents in this area. This goes back to
- 4:331990. So information was still garnered
- 4:36from not so much a message in a bottle
- 4:38or a drift current meter, but by
- 4:40accidents like this. Your book also
- 4:43gives some other examples of these
- 4:44accidents. And one of them was uh
- 4:47Chinese toys, little plastic toys.
- 4:50Imagine rubber duckies or the like. And
- 4:52again, finding these things allowed
- 4:54people to piece together what these
- 4:56ocean currents were doing as far as
- 4:58their direction and also their
- 5:00velocities or the speed. So, a really
- 5:03great figure here. And remember that we
- 5:06said the sea surface has the ability to
- 5:08bulge at higher elevations or lower
- 5:11elevations than sea level. So, the red
- 5:13colors are areas that have a higher than
- 5:15normal sea level. So they're like the
- 5:18bulgy layers, couple
- 5:20centimeters, purple, magenta areas, and
- 5:23the green areas are a little lower than
- 5:25sea level. Placed on this map now is the
- 5:28white arrows. And the arrows indicate
- 5:31the flow of the currents, the surface
- 5:33currents, and also the velocity with
- 5:36longer arrows indicating the faster flow
- 5:39rates. So you can just begin to see what
- 5:41we're going to talk about. But a lot of
- 5:43the fast flowing movement of the surface
- 5:45waters is happening here around the
- 5:47equator. You can see these smaller
- 5:49vectors and the direction. So
- 5:52smaller, you can also see smaller arrows
- 5:55which depict a smaller velocity in the
- 5:57surface currents and their
- 6:00locations. Another way to measure
- 6:02currents and these are great ways to
- 6:05measure the deep sea current. So that's
- 6:07that bottom cold dense water and how
- 6:09that's moving either vertically as we
- 6:12said up and down or horizontally is
- 6:15using chemical
- 6:16tracers. So what are chemical tracers?
- 6:19They are humanly inputed tracers. Uh we
- 6:23know when they were formed and we can
- 6:25look at their radioactive decay or
- 6:27actual their presence and determine
- 6:30where they were deployed first of all
- 6:31and where they end up. So you can
- 6:33measure deep sea water uh for tridium or
- 6:36CFC's and measure their abundance and
- 6:39piece together the deep sea currents.
- 6:41Tridium is interesting because it was
- 6:43released uh unnaturally from nuclear
- 6:46bomb tests in the 1950s and60s in the
- 6:49Pacific Ocean. So it ended up in the
- 6:52ocean and now we can look at
- 6:53concentrations and infer ah we find a
- 6:56level of tridium in this area that must
- 6:58have originated from the source and we
- 7:00can determine the velocity and the
- 7:02movement of these deep sea currents
- 7:04equally. So chlorofluorocarbons were
- 7:06used as primarily propellants like in
- 7:09hairspray. They were banned and they are
- 7:12still globally ubiquitous found
- 7:14everywhere. These are the culprits of
- 7:16these ozone depletion. So primarily they
- 7:19were banned because of ozone depletion.
- 7:21It worked. We maintained some of the
- 7:23ozone layer that we were losing back in
- 7:25the 80s and 90s and they can be used as
- 7:28deep sea tracers as well to look at the
- 7:30movement of the deep sea ocean. Another
- 7:33way to do this and this is staggering
- 7:35when you look at the number of dots on
- 7:37this map. The number of dots represents
- 7:39the deployment of what we call Argo and
- 7:42Argo are floating and sometimes
- 7:44nonflating measuring devices. They're
- 7:47free drifting. They can have the ability
- 7:50to de go deep down uh to measure the
- 7:54subsurface currents as well and even a
- 7:56special type now that goes very deep
- 7:59down thousands of meters. So these
- 8:02primarily are floating measuring devices
- 8:05kind of like the current meter that we
- 8:07saw before. They are satellite
- 8:10connected. So they're dumping their data
- 8:12live and we get a really extremely
- 8:16robust system of measuring these
- 8:18currents throughout the
- 8:20world. This is a special kind of Argo.
- 8:24Um and Argo is just this device. Instead
- 8:27of measuring the sea surface
- 8:28temperatures, they are deployed deep
- 8:31down. So they descend at a cruising
- 8:32depth at around uh 10 cm per second.
- 8:35They can go into that cold and dense
- 8:38area, that deep current and they can
- 8:41then follow the direction and also
- 8:43measure the velocity of that moving
- 8:45water body very very deep down and then
- 8:48they pop up and then through satellites
- 8:52they can dump their data and we can
- 8:55infer a lot about the movement of that
- 8:56deep
- 8:57sea. Let's get back to surface currents
- 9:00because I said most of this chapter
- 9:02we're going to be discussing it. It's
- 9:04very important in determining a whole
- 9:06bunch of things as we'll see. But
- 9:08surface currents are really proposed by
- 9:10a frictional drag be between the wind
- 9:13and the ocean. Uh so it's primarily wind
- 9:16driven. How are we moving the surface of
- 9:18the currents? Just blow on your coffee.
- 9:20So you blow on your coffee and it moves
- 9:23the surface, right? Same thing's
- 9:25happening here. The wind is that blowing
- 9:27breath, right? And the ocean is your
- 9:29coffee. But primarily that's what we're
- 9:31going for. Although there's a whole
- 9:32bunch of things that sort of uh tweak
- 9:36that concept as we'll see. So it's
- 9:39primarily wind but there's other
- 9:41factors. You've got wind but then you
- 9:44have obstructions like continents. So
- 9:45we'll see how that infers the pathway
- 9:48and the velocity. Once a sea surface
- 9:51hits a current uh continent. How is it
- 9:53going to be moved in a direction and how
- 9:56is the velocity changing? Also, gravity
- 10:00to an extent. Water molecules are under
- 10:02the influence of gravity just like
- 10:04everything else. So, that has something
- 10:05to do with the movement as well.
- 10:07Frictional forces, we'll get to that in
- 10:09a minute. So, we'll see these frictional
- 10:11forces
- 10:12shortly. And as well, because these are
- 10:15large scale movements of matter, water,
- 10:19they are under the influence of the
- 10:20corololis effect. And just to remind you
- 10:23that coriololis is the deflection of
- 10:26large scale masses of stuff like water
- 10:28or air masses. And the rule, remember
- 10:30the rule, in the northern hemisphere,
- 10:32you're getting a deflection to the
- 10:34right. In the southern hemisphere, you
- 10:36get deflection to the left. And we're
- 10:38really going to see how that plays out
- 10:39in the ocean
- 10:41circulation. So, the movement of these
- 10:43surface currents is largely driven by
- 10:46wind and adding in a couple other
- 10:48factors as we'll see. But what happens
- 10:50is through wind we develop these things
- 10:54called gys. They are large circular
- 10:56loops of moving water. Let's go to a map
- 10:59and check them
- 11:00out. So here we have a map of the
- 11:03southern and the northern hemisphere,
- 11:05but we're zeroing in on the Atlantic
- 11:07Ocean. So the North Atlantic is here and
- 11:10the South Atlantic here. Look at the
- 11:14arrows that are purple in nature because
- 11:16they are showing the movement of the
- 11:18surface waters. And you can clearly see
- 11:21this clockwise rotation called a gy in
- 11:24the North Atlantic. And you can clearly
- 11:26see an
- 11:28anti-lockwise
- 11:29or counterclockwise movement in the
- 11:32southern hemisphere. These ocean surface
- 11:36currents, these gys are primarily wind
- 11:38driven. And remember the chapter when we
- 11:40discussed the prevailing westerlys and
- 11:43the trade winds either the northeast
- 11:45trade winds or the southeast trade winds
- 11:47and their movement and deflection to the
- 11:49right in the northern hemisphere and
- 11:51left in the southern hemisphere. They're
- 11:54primarily responsible for driving this
- 11:56circular motion of the surface
- 12:00currents. What we have in each one of
- 12:02these gys and these are just two
- 12:04examples of gys but there are more.
- 12:06We'll switch to the other ones in a
- 12:08moment. So think of these gys. Yes,
- 12:10they're represented as circles, but I
- 12:12like to think of them as boxes. Boxes
- 12:15with four sides. And those four sides
- 12:17represent different currents that
- 12:20represent the entire gy, but we label
- 12:22them differently. So here that northern
- 12:25current is called the northern boundary
- 12:28current. Here that current is the
- 12:31southern boundary current. Let's go back
- 12:33to this gy here. This is the western
- 12:36part of the Atlantic. So it's called a
- 12:38western boundary current and equally if
- 12:41you go to the other side right here this
- 12:43is an eastern boundary current and the
- 12:46one that is near the equator is called
- 12:48the equatorial current. Okay so there's
- 12:51the equatorial current in this gy
- 12:53equatorial current here western boundary
- 12:56current. We've got
- 12:58the southern boundary current and we've
- 13:01got the eastern current. So each one of
- 13:03these
- 13:04gys and we'll see more of these
- 13:06worldwide can be labeled in the sort of
- 13:09this box figure with the appropriate
- 13:13uh
- 13:14directional
- 13:15boundary. Okay. So here we see again
- 13:18worldwide we zoomed into the Atlantic in
- 13:22the northern hemisphere and the movement
- 13:24here of this gy counterclockwise in the
- 13:26southern hemisphere. But we can see
- 13:28these gys exist in this Pacific Ocean
- 13:31here. we see a large gy right. This
- 13:34would be the western boundary, the
- 13:36northern boundary, the eastern boundary,
- 13:38and the equatorial uh boundary. Here we
- 13:41have another gy again counterclockwise
- 13:43in the southern ocean. Here's the
- 13:45equatorial boundary, the western
- 13:47boundary because it's in the western
- 13:49Pacific, the southern boundary, and the
- 13:52eastern boundary here. So, as long as
- 13:55you know your north, south, east, and
- 13:56west, you've got the labeling systems of
- 13:58this four-part current system that makes
- 14:01up these gys. No, it's not like a box,
- 14:03but again, I like to remember it as such
- 14:05to remember the lab labels. So, eastern
- 14:09boundary, western boundary, northern,
- 14:11southern boundary, and equatorial those
- 14:13are sort of generic components of a gy.
- 14:17When we go to an actual map like this,
- 14:19you see they get special names. So we
- 14:21said this was the western boundary
- 14:23current in the uh northern hemisphere of
- 14:26the Pacific Ocean. That's called the
- 14:28Corisho uh current. Down here we have
- 14:32the California current. We spoke of this
- 14:33before. If you're going swimming in
- 14:35August off the co coast of California,
- 14:38it's going to be cold. It's a cold water
- 14:40current coming down from the northern
- 14:42part heading back to the equator. So on
- 14:44this map too, you see that red indicates
- 14:46these warm currents and the blue
- 14:49represents the colder currents. And it
- 14:51kind of makes sense if you're traveling
- 14:53on the equator, enriching that current
- 14:55in warm water. The Gulf Stream we know
- 14:58is a warm current heading up, but as it
- 15:00heads up, we cool these currents down,
- 15:03but they return on their eastern
- 15:05boundary towards the equator, but
- 15:06they're cold. And again, this was the
- 15:08moderation of the continental climate
- 15:11right offshore here, which I mentioned
- 15:12before as well. The Ecman spiral is one
- 15:15of the coolest things I think in uh this
- 15:17chapter. And in oceanography, surface
- 15:19currents move at an angle to the wind.
- 15:21So, if you go back to my little analogy
- 15:24of blow over your coffee to cool it, it
- 15:27looks like the coffee the surface of the
- 15:28coffee is moving in the direction of
- 15:30your blow. So, you would think if the
- 15:32wind's blowing, aren't the surfaces
- 15:34going to move in that direction? Ecman a
- 15:36scientist said no that they actually
- 15:39blow at an angle to the wind. The Ecman
- 15:41spiral describes the speed and also more
- 15:44importantly I think the direction of the
- 15:46seawater flow at different depths. So
- 15:49we'll take a look at a video because
- 15:50it's much better in action and in
- 15:52animation. But each successive layer
- 15:55moves increasingly to the right in the
- 15:57northern hemisphere, increasingly to the
- 16:00left in the southern hemisphere. Let's
- 16:02put this in motion. As wind moves across
- 16:05the surface of the ocean, friction
- 16:07between the moving air and the surface
- 16:08of the water causes the water to begin
- 16:11to move as well. This transfer of energy
- 16:13through friction is how wind causes
- 16:15surface currents. Once water at the
- 16:17surface begins to move, some of the
- 16:19energy gets transferred to deeper
- 16:21layers, allowing water movement to
- 16:22penetrate to depths of 50 to 100 m. The
- 16:26details of how water behaves as energy
- 16:28from wind moves from the surface to
- 16:30depth was first investigated by Walford
- 16:33Ecman in 1905. He was given the idea to
- 16:36investigate surface currents by the
- 16:37Arctic explorer Freechov Nansen. While
- 16:40on an expedition, Nanson noticed that
- 16:42windb blown sea ice did not move in the
- 16:45same direction as the wind. Instead, it
- 16:47moved 20 to 40° to the right of the
- 16:49wind. He correctly speculated that this
- 16:52was due to the influence of Earth's
- 16:54rotation. Ecman took Nansson's idea and
- 16:56built a mathematical model to explain
- 16:58it. Ecman's model treats water as a
- 17:00series of layers that move independently
- 17:03of each other. As each layer moves, the
- 17:06energy from that motion can transfer
- 17:08from layer to layer. Consider a small
- 17:11vertical column of water that starts at
- 17:13the surface and extends towards the
- 17:15bottom. As energy moves from the surface
- 17:17to deeper layers, two things happen.
- 17:20First, because some energy is lost in
- 17:22each transfer to a deeper layer, water
- 17:24speed diminishes quickly with depth.
- 17:26Second, as the movement is transferred
- 17:29deeper, Corola's effect deflects each
- 17:32layer to the right of the one above it.
- 17:34This creates a spiral pattern called an
- 17:36ecman spiral.
- 17:40One result of this deflection pattern is
- 17:42that at depth, a small amount of water
- 17:44is actually moving in the completely
- 17:46opposite direction than the wind that
- 17:48started the motion in the first place.
- 17:50Because water movement diminishes
- 17:52quickly with depth, Ecman showed that
- 17:54the net transfer of water is at a 90°
- 17:56angle to wind direction. Because this is
- 17:59all driven by the corololis effect, the
- 18:01deflection is 90° to the right in the
- 18:03northern hemisphere and 90° to the left
- 18:05in the southern hemisphere.
- 18:07This movement of water at right angles
- 18:09to the direction of the prevailing winds
- 18:11is called ecman transport. And
- 18:13consistent with Nansson's observations,
- 18:15the water right at the surface moves 20
- 18:18to 40° to the right or left of the wind
- 18:20direction. This variability is driven by
- 18:22differences in how long and how
- 18:24consistently the wind blows. The
- 18:26dynamics of ecman transport contribute
- 18:28to some important features in the ocean
- 18:30environment. In coastal areas where
- 18:32prevailing winds blow along the coast so
- 18:35that net water movement is offshore, the
- 18:37water pushed out to sea is replaced by
- 18:40deeper water causing upwelling. By the
- 18:43way, this is assuming you're in the
- 18:45northern hemisphere. So, if the wind,
- 18:47you're stationed here, and the wind is
- 18:48blowing towards you, that wind is going
- 18:51to slosh or move that surface water 90°
- 18:56to the right. So, it's like slloshing it
- 18:59away from the coastline as depicted
- 19:01here. That water is sloshed away and
- 19:03wants to be replaced. It's replaced by
- 19:06the cold, nutrient-rich bottom waters
- 19:08that come come up. So, this is called
- 19:10upwelling. We're going to get back to
- 19:12this concept more. The upwelling of this
- 19:15deeper water moves nutrients to the
- 19:17surface, making these regions of high
- 19:19productivity. Wind blowing in the
- 19:22opposite direction pushes surface water
- 19:24towards the coast. Again, the caveat is
- 19:26he should have mentioned we're assuming
- 19:28you're in the northern hemisphere. This
- 19:30would be opposite all opposite. It would
- 19:33move to the left 90° if you were in the
- 19:36southern hemisphere. That would cause
- 19:37upwelling if this were southern
- 19:38hemisphere. As water piles up at the
- 19:41shore, it is forced down creating
- 19:43downwelling. The concentration of
- 19:45relatively nutrient poor surface water
- 19:48makes these regions less productive.
- 19:50Ecman driven up and downwelling are not
- 19:52limited to coastal environments. In the
- 19:54open ocean, trade winds also cause Ecman
- 19:57transport. Along the equator, prevailing
- 19:59winds blow from east to west. This
- 20:01causes water to move away from the
- 20:03equator in both the northern and
- 20:05southern hemispheres, creating a region
- 20:07of diverging currents that lowers the
- 20:09water level right at the equator,
- 20:11causing deeper water to upwell. It's
- 20:14almost like we've heard the parting of
- 20:15the Red Sea along the equator because of
- 20:18the winds. They're slloshing water to
- 20:20the right 90 degrees and to the left 90
- 20:23degrees depending upon what hemisphere
- 20:25you're in shown nicely here. It's kind
- 20:27of like parting that water. That water
- 20:30those water molecules are going in
- 20:31either direction and want to be replaced
- 20:34with something replaced by the bottom
- 20:36waters. So we have upwelling. Upwelling
- 20:38does not have to occur at a coastline.
- 20:40It can happen here especially in the
- 20:42equatorial regions in mid latitudes
- 20:44around 30° north and south where
- 20:47prevailing winds transition from
- 20:48easterly to westerly water piles up as
- 20:51the easterly and westerly winds drive
- 20:53surface currents towards each other.
- 20:55This convergence causes downwelling just
- 20:57like along the coast. Upwelling along
- 20:59the equator brings nutrient-rich water
- 21:01to the surface stimulating primary
- 21:03productivity.
- 21:05the so again these are interesting
- 21:07because they're the convergence zones of
- 21:10wind right so that equatorial was the
- 21:12wind was blowing the uh in either
- 21:15direction leaving an opening right and
- 21:18that opening is replaced by upweld water
- 21:21but here in the depiction we have
- 21:23downwelling because your winds are
- 21:25coming towards each other piling stuff
- 21:28up and that water molecule likes to
- 21:31thanks to gravity head down so we've got
- 21:33downwelling
- 21:35piling up of water at mid latitudes
- 21:37contribute to the formation of gys
- 21:39that's so probably all new stuff to you
- 21:42incredibly important for surface water
- 21:45movement also explains upwelling and
- 21:47downwelling the ecman spiral so here we
- 21:50have the take-home messages we saw in
- 21:53that video the average movement of
- 21:54seawater under the influence is a
- 21:58deflection 90° to the right if you're in
- 22:01the northern hemisphere and 90° to the
- 22:03left in the southern hemisphere. That's
- 22:06the net transport. And again, if you're
- 22:08sitting on the sea surface here, are you
- 22:10moving 90°? No. We saw just as Nansen
- 22:13saw uh 20° to like 40° movement here of
- 22:17ice. Or if you're on your ship and the
- 22:19wind's blowing this way, you're going to
- 22:21be going that way if you're uh just free
- 22:25floating. So that last video alluded to
- 22:28the fact if you have this giring water,
- 22:31that motion actually piles up water
- 22:33molecules and raises the sea surface
- 22:36towards the middle of that gy. Those
- 22:39surface water molecules want to flow
- 22:42downhill because of gravity. Also, we
- 22:45get a deflection in the northern
- 22:47atmosphere to the right thanks to
- 22:48corololis. So we get a balance of
- 22:50downhill and to the right causing this
- 22:54geostrophic flow around a hill. This
- 22:57again is a complicated thing. So I think
- 22:59animation and a video is warranted here.
- 23:02Let's watch it. Water in the oceans is
- 23:04in constant motion. The major surface
- 23:06currents are driven by energy
- 23:08transferred from the wind by friction.
- 23:10The direction water travels is
- 23:12determined by how the transferred wind
- 23:14energy interacts with corololis
- 23:15deflection, other currents, and
- 23:17geological features such as continents
- 23:19and island arcs. A major feature of the
- 23:22current systems in all of Earth's large
- 23:24ocean basins is a central gy. These gys
- 23:29move water near the surface in large
- 23:31roughly circular patterns around the
- 23:33center of each ocean basin. Given the
- 23:35orientation of the wind in these areas
- 23:37relative to the direction the currents
- 23:39travel, it may look as if the wind
- 23:41directly creates the currents. But due
- 23:43to the influence of the earth's
- 23:45rotation, the process that forms gys is
- 23:48more complicated. This circulation
- 23:50pattern is an example of geostrophic
- 23:52flow which is a type of movement that
- 23:54occurs when the forces acting on objects
- 23:56are so weak relative to the influence of
- 23:58the rotation of the earth that corololis
- 24:01deflection is the factor that determines
- 24:03the direction of motion. To understand
- 24:05this, it helps to start with a more
- 24:07familiar situation. Consider a ball
- 24:09sitting at the top of an incin plane.
- 24:11The force of gravity pulling down on the
- 24:13ball will cause it to roll down the
- 24:15plane. In this situation, the force of
- 24:17gravity is strong and the motion of the
- 24:20ball is fast relative to other forces
- 24:22acting on the ball, allowing the ball to
- 24:24roll down the plane. As expected, the
- 24:26dynamics change if we alter the
- 24:28situation so that the slope of the plane
- 24:30is very shallow and the ball is tiny. As
- 24:32the slope of the plane and the mass of
- 24:34the ball decrease, the force of gravity
- 24:36acting on the ball becomes weaker. With
- 24:38a small enough ball and a shallow enough
- 24:41plane, Coriola's deflection becomes so
- 24:43influential that it overwhelms the
- 24:46orientation of gravity's pull down the
- 24:48slope and the ball will actually move
- 24:50across the plane instead of down it.
- 24:52This can create some seemingly
- 24:54counterintuitive behavior. If instead of
- 24:56a plane, the ball was on a small hill,
- 24:58it would roll around the hill instead of
- 25:00down it. This is geostrophic movement or
- 25:03as used in fluid dynamics, geostrophic
- 25:06flow. It is important to understand that
- 25:08for this type of motion to occur, the
- 25:10slope has to be extremely small and be
- 25:12extended over a very large area like for
- 25:14example a large portion of an ocean
- 25:16basin. While the ocean surface does look
- 25:19flat to the unaded eye, there are hills
- 25:21of water in the open ocean. These hills
- 25:23form at mid latitudes in both
- 25:25hemispheres where the low latitude
- 25:27easterly trade winds are replaced by
- 25:29westerlys at higher latitudes. The
- 25:31surface currents created by these winds
- 25:33are turned 90° by corololis deflection.
- 25:36The resulting ecman transport drives the
- 25:38formation of regions of convergence
- 25:41where water actually piles up forming
- 25:43small hills. These hills of water are
- 25:45only about a meter in height. But this
- 25:47change in elevation is enough to
- 25:50generate a difference in pressure across
- 25:51the basin with the elevated region in
- 25:53the center at a slightly higher pressure
- 25:55than the surrounding area. This creates
- 25:58a small pressure gradient across the
- 26:00basin. The pressure gradient acts like
- 26:02the hill in the example with the ball,
- 26:04generating a force that pushes water
- 26:06down the gradient away from the center
- 26:07of the hill. Since the elevation
- 26:09difference is small and is spread across
- 26:11a large distance, the pressure gradient
- 26:13force is weak, creating conditions for
- 26:16geostrophic flow to occur. So rather
- 26:18than moving down the gradient, water
- 26:20flows along lines of equal pressure
- 26:23around the hill instead of down it. To
- 26:26summarize, the formation of the large
- 26:28ocean gy starts with trade wind-driven
- 26:30Ecman transport piling water in the
- 26:33middle of the basins. This pile of water
- 26:35generates a pressure gradient that
- 26:37pushes the water back out away from the
- 26:39center of the pile. Since the pressure
- 26:41gradient is small and spread across a
- 26:42large distance, the flow down the
- 26:44pressure gradient is deflected by the
- 26:46rotation of the earth and the water
- 26:48actually flows around the pile instead
- 26:50of down it. This is a steadystate
- 26:52situation with energy from Ecman
- 26:54transport in balance with the force of
- 26:57pressure gradient pushing back out
- 26:59resulting in a stable circulation of
- 27:01water around the gy. Yeah, that's a lot.
- 27:04So, it brings in this issue that we saw
- 27:06with the Ecman spiral, some coriololis
- 27:08effect and it explains this gy
- 27:11formation. I just want to go back to
- 27:14this because we're going to see it. But
- 27:15if you remember the video here and
- 27:17you're like, "Oh, why aren't these
- 27:19perfectly ovalshaped? Why are the
- 27:22vectors on the western boundary seem to
- 27:25be clustering together rather than not
- 27:28clustering together?" Right? There's
- 27:30more space between these vectors on the
- 27:32eastern boundary currents. We're going
- 27:34to come back to that because of the
- 27:36geostrophic flow. we have a buildup on
- 27:39the western boundaries that these
- 27:41vectors are all sort of clustered
- 27:42together more. These are higher velocity
- 27:45surface currents. These are lower
- 27:48velocity meaning these western boundary
- 27:50currents move faster. These move slower.
- 27:53So if you put this into action like
- 27:55here's the Gulfream. Gulfream is a
- 27:58pretty fast flowing surface current.
- 28:01When you get over here and that eastern
- 28:03boundary current, that cold air or cold
- 28:05water coming back towards the equator,
- 28:07it's a slowm moving current. So, this is
- 28:10a great depiction and we'll see this in
- 28:12a moment. So, just looking at this, it
- 28:14is really complicated. So, here we have
- 28:16the link to the URL that that video was
- 28:20I just showed, but you might want to go
- 28:22back to that. And there's other
- 28:23resources as well. Don't get bogged down
- 28:25on all the minute details of this. I
- 28:28just want you to understand the large
- 28:30scale things that are driving
- 28:32this. Okay. So, I paused that video and
- 28:35I went back to notify you of that
- 28:37western buildup. The clustering of all
- 28:40those vectors means that the western
- 28:42currents heading to the north pole
- 28:44heading to the south pole are much
- 28:46faster. They're faster and faster and
- 28:49they're all clustered together. They're
- 28:51narrower. So, they're not broad
- 28:53currents, but they're narrower in
- 28:54compared to the eastern boundary
- 28:56currents. They're much deeper and since
- 28:59they're originating from the equatorial
- 29:01areas, they are warm water deliverers to
- 29:06the poles. So they're taking that warm
- 29:08water from the equatorial regions and
- 29:10moving it very quickly and deeply to the
- 29:13northern parts of the hemispheres either
- 29:16the north pole or the south pole.
- 29:17Counter to that we said wow look at the
- 29:19eastern boundary currents they are cold
- 29:22because they have just been towards the
- 29:24polar regions in both hemispheres. So
- 29:26they cool down. They're delivering cold,
- 29:28denser water via the uh surface
- 29:31currents. They're relatively slow in
- 29:34compared to the western boundary
- 29:35currents. They're shallower. They don't
- 29:38run as deep. And they're quite broad and
- 29:40wide. Warm ocean currents, warm air at
- 29:44the coast. And we have this example of
- 29:47the Gulf Stream that's delivering warm
- 29:50water, but that also influences our
- 29:53climate or daily weather conditions on
- 29:55the coastline. They deliver warm humid
- 29:57air. Humid climate is usually adjoining
- 30:01to the land
- 30:02mass. Cool ocean currents cool air to
- 30:05the coast. Think of California. Think of
- 30:07Britain, right? Those are cold eastern
- 30:09boundary currents that are offshore. You
- 30:12deliver cold water, but you also
- 30:14influence the air above. It's usually
- 30:16cool, dry air, and a drier climate to
- 30:18the adjoining land mass. So, ocean
- 30:21currents do inform or influence our
- 30:25climate. And and here we see it. We see
- 30:27the warm ocean currents that are moving
- 30:29from east to west, delivering warm
- 30:32equatorial water to the western current,
- 30:35the western boundary current, right?
- 30:37that then cools off and then you form
- 30:40your eastern boundary cool water coming
- 30:43back. So it's a circular motion of water
- 30:45being heated up cooling down almost like
- 30:48a convection cell that we saw in the
- 30:50atmosphere but here it's happening in
- 30:51the surface currents. Here we see
- 30:54something that we saw in that first
- 30:55video equatorial regions because of the
- 30:58wind going either direction they
- 31:01actually part some of that equatorial
- 31:03region. So water molecules are being
- 31:06pulled in either direction towards the
- 31:08poles and that leaves an absence of
- 31:10water. You can almost think of it as a
- 31:12little valley and then water wants to
- 31:14rush in to replace that. So you get
- 31:16upwelling of deeper bottom waters
- 31:18replacing that. Upwelling areas are
- 31:22usually nutrient-rich so they support a
- 31:24high biological productivity area.
- 31:28There are also areas that because of the
- 31:30winds pile up water into these little
- 31:33bumps and hills. Water then under the
- 31:37influence of gravity flows down. So
- 31:39that's called downwelling. Downwelling
- 31:42is not delivering any nutrients. It's
- 31:44just pushing that surface
- 31:45down. So we've already seen this issue
- 31:48of upwelling and downwelling. But I just
- 31:50want to make it really clear. In
- 31:51upwelling areas, we get a vertical
- 31:53movement of cold, very old,
- 31:56nutrient-rich water that's coming back
- 31:58up to the surface. Remember residence
- 32:00times, these are the water molecules
- 32:02that have been sequestered for thousands
- 32:05of years. But in the deep ocean, you can
- 32:08build up nutrients and then that cold
- 32:10rich water can come up in coastal areas
- 32:12or even non- coastal areas like the
- 32:14equatorial region. They support high
- 32:17biological productivity because there's
- 32:18an abundance of nutrients and then
- 32:21they're hitting the surface where
- 32:22there's uh sun. So sunlight plus
- 32:25nutrients. There we go. That's the
- 32:28recipe for high biological productivity.
- 32:30Which just means that phytolanton will
- 32:32be abundant. They have their food source
- 32:34and they have sunlight the energy
- 32:36source. Opposite that we saw that in
- 32:38some coastal areas or even open ocean,
- 32:41we could have downwelling this vertical
- 32:43movement of surface water. So, we saw
- 32:45this in the video, but always when you
- 32:47look at these images, make sure what
- 32:49hemisphere you're in because it makes a
- 32:51difference because you're going to use
- 32:52the Ecman spiral or Ecman transport
- 32:54theory to determine which way that
- 32:57surface water is moving. So, here,
- 32:59position yourself. Here's the coastline
- 33:01to your right. And here we are are on
- 33:03the west coast in the northern
- 33:05hemisphere. So, imagine northern
- 33:07California. That would be nice. And the
- 33:09wind is coming in this direction is
- 33:11blowing towards you. Remember, if the
- 33:13wind is coming in this direction, it's
- 33:15going to transport water 90° to the
- 33:18right. So, that's going to slosh water
- 33:21away from the coastline. Sloshing that
- 33:24water away from the coastline leaves
- 33:25kind of a water void. Think of it. It
- 33:27doesn't happen like movement of water.
- 33:29All doesn't rush away, but think of it
- 33:31as sloshing that water away. That water
- 33:34wants to be replaced. It's going to be
- 33:36replaced by cold, nutrient-rich bottom
- 33:38waters. This is coastal upwelling. We
- 33:41also have coastal downwelling. So here
- 33:43we are in the same coast, northern
- 33:45hemisphere, right? But the wind is
- 33:47coming in that direction. Remember that
- 33:49the Ecman spiral is going to shift the
- 33:52surface of the sea 90° to the right.
- 33:56That's going to slosh water in this case
- 33:59towards your coastline. It's going to
- 34:01build up that water. Water wants to go
- 34:03somewhere. It doesn't want to
- 34:04continually build up. It's going to be
- 34:06down well. So it's pushing those warmer
- 34:08surface waters down. Again, these maps
- 34:11can be tricky on a test. Sometimes I
- 34:14switch it from northern hemisphere to
- 34:16the southern hemisphere. I switch along
- 34:19switch the coastline as well. So, it
- 34:20gets tricky, but you just have to orient
- 34:22yourself what hemisphere I am. Remember
- 34:24the rules for the Ecman spiral and the
- 34:26Ecman transport and then take it from
- 34:28there. We seem to always forget about
- 34:31the Antarctic region. Here we have an
- 34:34Antarctic circulation. The surface
- 34:36waters are moving in a clockwise
- 34:40rotation around the Antarctic
- 34:43continent. So I just want to hit some of
- 34:46the interesting ones and this goes back
- 34:48to yeah chapter one when Benjamin
- 34:50Franklin realized that ships catching
- 34:52the Gulf Stream could reach Britain
- 34:54faster. So it's the best studied one. Uh
- 34:56you can have meanders or loops. This is
- 34:59a western boundary current. So it's
- 35:01warm. It's coming up from the equator.
- 35:03Water which has been warmed up pushing
- 35:05against the continent and driving it
- 35:07towards the northern part of the
- 35:09northern hemisphere here. But we saw
- 35:11this before in some of the LANCAT images
- 35:14just because you can get these weird
- 35:15undulations. You can encapsulate by eddy
- 35:19formation here, warm water eddies or
- 35:21even like close off cold water here and
- 35:24you get these cold
- 35:26rings. Here we have some LANCAT images.
- 35:28I showed this one before. Here's the
- 35:30warm Caribbean waters coming up. It's
- 35:33narrow. It's deep. It's fast. It's
- 35:34heading towards the North Atlantic,
- 35:36right? And that's going to form the
- 35:38northern boundary current when it
- 35:40reaches that area. And again, just an
- 35:42image that we showed before of the eddi
- 35:45formation happens all the time. And you
- 35:47can really see these eddies of warm and
- 35:48cold water. There's the cold water, cold
- 35:51water one. Okay, you've probably heard
- 35:54of El Nino. But before we get to what El
- 35:57Nino is, we need to know what a normal
- 36:00condition is. El Nino conditions are I
- 36:03would say abnormal, but they're the
- 36:05anti-normal condition. So normal
- 36:08conditions, we have air pressure across
- 36:10the equatorial Pacific being higher than
- 36:13the eastern Pacific. We have strong
- 36:15southeast trade winds. We have Pacific
- 36:17warm pools on the western side. We have
- 36:20a thermocline, remember that rapid
- 36:22change in temperature that's deeper on
- 36:24the western side. And we have upwelling
- 36:26off the coast of Peru. That's a lot, but
- 36:29those are the characteristics of the
- 36:30normal conditions. Let's look at a
- 36:33depiction of
- 36:36that. Okay, so here's our normal
- 36:39condition. Our normal condition is
- 36:41having what we call this walker
- 36:43circulation cell that's going from this
- 36:46is the Pacific going from the east
- 36:50towards the west side of the Pacific. So
- 36:52it's going to move that way. This is the
- 36:54northern hemisphere and a little bit of
- 36:56this other hemisphere here. So we've got
- 36:59this cell. The cell is unlike the
- 37:01atmospheric cells that were primarily
- 37:03going north south or south north that we
- 37:05talked about atmospherically the fereral
- 37:07the polar um cells that we talked about
- 37:11before. These are going in an east west
- 37:14direction. So we got this cell set up
- 37:16here. We have descending cold air that's
- 37:19creating a high pressure system here.
- 37:21The high pressure system likes to move
- 37:22to the low pressure system here. Notice
- 37:24the sea surfaces. Your wind is going
- 37:27this way and it's driving all
- 37:29that warm water over here. That warm
- 37:33water is concentrated here around
- 37:35Australia, Japan, Asia, continent right
- 37:38here. Okay. Warm uplifting air creates
- 37:42fair weather, rainy weather. High
- 37:44pressure systems creates nice dry
- 37:46conditions here. Look what's happening
- 37:48subsurface. This movement from high to
- 37:51low pressure, this green vector pushes
- 37:54all that warm water to the western side
- 37:56of the Pacific Ocean, leaving behind
- 38:00sort of absence of water on this side.
- 38:02It's actually piling up. You can look at
- 38:04elevation differences. You're piling up
- 38:06the water on this side of the Pacific,
- 38:08leaving a little void here. That void
- 38:10wants to replace itself with something.
- 38:12It's replaced by upwelling cold,
- 38:14nutrient-rich water. That's the normal
- 38:16system. So now that we know something
- 38:19about the normal condition, we're going
- 38:21to watch a video to just solidify our
- 38:23understanding of it. Let's look at at
- 38:25the abnormal phases. And one of the
- 38:27abnormal phases is called El Nino. It's
- 38:29a warmer phase. There's another one that
- 38:32we'll talk about called Leninia. It's a
- 38:34colder phase. But let's start with our
- 38:35normal conditions and see what happens.
- 38:38In El Nino, we have high pressure in the
- 38:40eastern Pacific and it weakens. Weaker
- 38:43trade winds. We get that warm pool
- 38:45migrating eastward. It was sloshed
- 38:47westward. Now it kind of migrates
- 38:50eastward changing the atmospheric
- 38:53conditions along the coast of the
- 38:55eastern the western um coastline of
- 38:58United States and South America. We have
- 39:01a destruction or a weakening of the
- 39:04thermaline. So it's deeper in the
- 39:06eastern Pacific. And we have
- 39:08downwelling. Downwelling means lower
- 39:10biological productivity. Corals are
- 39:13particularly sensitive to this warmer
- 39:15sea water. and you're going to do an
- 39:16activity looking at
- 39:19that. So here we have El Nino and look
- 39:22at the difference. It's almost like a
- 39:23reversal. Before we had a high pressure
- 39:25system here and a low pressure system
- 39:27here. Here it's reversed. High pressure
- 39:29system always moves towards the low
- 39:31pressure system. It's sloshing warmer
- 39:34water over here. This was colder water
- 39:36before in the normal phase. And because
- 39:39you're sloshing it over here, you're not
- 39:41creating a void and up uh upwelling will
- 39:44occur. you're actually just filling in
- 39:46more warmer water along the coastline.
- 39:49So you have a destruction or
- 39:51horizontalization of the thermocline. So
- 39:54go back and you're going to look at
- 39:55these two images and go, "Oh, I get the
- 39:57difference." Look at the weather. We
- 39:59said in a normal phase it was aid, dry,
- 40:01and sunny, right? Typical California or
- 40:04Mediterranean climate along these
- 40:06coasts, Central America and over here in
- 40:09South America. But now we get these
- 40:12under El Nino conditions, very wet,
- 40:14rainy, fair weather conditions. Okay, so
- 40:17I went back to this image which actually
- 40:19shows you the El Nino conditions and
- 40:21also the normal conditions. Let's take a
- 40:24look. Every few years, the El Nino
- 40:26phenomenon kicks into life in the
- 40:28Pacific Ocean around the equator. It can
- 40:31affect weather around the world,
- 40:33changing the odds of floods, drought,
- 40:36heat waves, and cold seasons for
- 40:38different regions. even raising global
- 40:41temperatures. But what is El Nino and
- 40:44how does it happen? Firstly, we need to
- 40:46know what's normally happening in the
- 40:48tropical Pacific. This vast stretch of
- 40:51ocean sees consistent winds called trade
- 40:54winds that blow from east to west. These
- 40:58winds push warm water near the surface
- 41:00in their direction of travel. So, the
- 41:02warm water piles up on the western side
- 41:05of the ocean around Asia and
- 41:07Australasia. On the other side of the
- 41:10ocean around South and Central America,
- 41:12as the warmer water gets pushed away
- 41:15from the coast, it's replaced by cold
- 41:17water which is pulled up from deeper
- 41:20down in the ocean, a process called
- 41:23upwelling. This creates a temperature
- 41:25difference across the tropical Pacific
- 41:28with warmer water piled up in the west
- 41:30and cooler water in the east. Warmer
- 41:33water adds extra heat to the air which
- 41:36causes the air to rise with more vigor.
- 41:38And it's this rising air that creates an
- 41:41area of more unsettled weather with more
- 41:43cloud and
- 41:44rainfall. That rising air in the west
- 41:48sets up atmospheric circulation across
- 41:51this part of the world with warm moist
- 41:53air rising on one side of the ocean and
- 41:56cooler drier air descending on the
- 41:58other. This circulation reinforces the
- 42:01easterly winds. So this part of the
- 42:04world sits in a self-perpetuating state
- 42:07until El Nino begins. If conditions are
- 42:11right, tropical Pacific weather systems
- 42:14or slow changes in the ocean around the
- 42:16equator can set off a chain of events
- 42:19which weaken or even reverse the usual
- 42:21trade winds. With weakened trade winds,
- 42:24there's less push of warm surface water
- 42:27to the western side of the ocean and
- 42:30less upwelling of cold water on the
- 42:33eastern side. This allows the usually
- 42:36colder parts of the ocean to warm,
- 42:38canceling out the normal temperature
- 42:40difference. Because the area of warmest
- 42:43water moves, so does the associated wet
- 42:46and unsettled weather. This changes
- 42:49rainfall patterns over the equatorial
- 42:51Pacific as well as the largecale wind
- 42:54patterns. It's this change in winds
- 42:57which has a knock-on effect changing
- 42:59temperature and rainfall in locations
- 43:02around the world. The main impacts are
- 43:05around the tropics where you see an
- 43:07increase in the risk of floods in Peru
- 43:10and droughts in Indonesia, India, and
- 43:12parts of Brazil. But virtually wherever
- 43:16you are in the world, El Nino has the
- 43:18potential to affect you directly via the
- 43:21weather or indirectly via socioeconomic
- 43:24impacts. There's another impact from El
- 43:27Nino which happens because of all the
- 43:29extra heat at the surface of the
- 43:31tropical Pacific. This releases vast
- 43:34amounts of energy into the atmosphere
- 43:36which can temporarily push up global
- 43:39temperatures. This is why El Nino years
- 43:42often feature among the warmest on
- 43:44record. Each El Nino event is different
- 43:48so the global impacts can change. You
- 43:51can find out more about the differing
- 43:53impacts of El Nino on our website. So I
- 43:56hope that video put my two figures and
- 43:59explanation and laundry list here into
- 44:01action and you understand it more. So
- 44:05really really important it is unperiodic
- 44:09or
- 44:11non-determinable presence El no events.
- 44:14So they sometimes can predict them by
- 44:16changes in sea surface temperature but
- 44:19they're erratic as we'll see
- 44:21momentarily. So I want to talk about the
- 44:23last one and this sort of looks like the
- 44:25normal condition map and it is. It's
- 44:28called leninia. It's called the cold
- 44:30phase and it's just a heightened normal
- 44:33phase where you get even more warm water
- 44:36slushed towards the western boundary of
- 44:38the Pacific Ocean. You get even more
- 44:41upwelling in the eastern portion here of
- 44:44the Pacific Ocean. So the western coasts
- 44:47of South America and North America. So
- 44:49it's a heightened normal phase here.
- 44:52Even more upwelling. So much colder
- 44:55temperatures here and uh but you still
- 44:58have this high pressure and uh
- 45:00Mediterranean climate here instead of
- 45:02wet conditions. So we can look at sea
- 45:04surface and in an activity you'll do you
- 45:07actually looking at coral reef impacts
- 45:09under an El Nino versus a normal phase.
- 45:14Um so sea surface temperatures again you
- 45:16can start to predict these and we have
- 45:18the ability to use satellite images to
- 45:20look at sea surface temperatures and
- 45:22either predict that an El Nino year is
- 45:24coming or a leninia event is coming as
- 45:26well. As I said these are irregular
- 45:29highly irregular highly unpredictable
- 45:31although scientists are getting better
- 45:33at using sea surface temperatures to
- 45:35look at small changes and to predict
- 45:37that larger changes. The phase usually
- 45:40lasts for 12 to 18 months and you can
- 45:42see the um the events here leading up to
- 45:45around uh 2020. So fairly recent
- 45:49data, the implications are global
- 45:52although we really concentrate on what's
- 45:54going to happen to the western United
- 45:56States weather under an El Nino. It's
- 45:58going to be much rainier. There's going
- 45:59to be mudslides. It's a worldwide event.
- 46:02And you can see here and read in your
- 46:04book that everything from m mar mar mar
- 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
- 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
- 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
- 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar marine life can
- 46:07be affected coral reef damage you'll see
- 46:09that in the activity incidences of
- 46:11forest fires we've certainly seen that
- 46:13in California and British Columbia
- 46:16tropical storm events so this is not
- 46:18just a weather pattern and whether it's
- 46:21cool or warm weather off the coast of
- 46:23California or Central America it's it's
- 46:26globally influencing a lot of these
- 46:28things there is a video here and uh for
- 46:32the purposes of time I'm going to allow
- 46:34you to open up the PowerPoint and take a
- 46:36look at that but you can first
- 46:38understand these events normal El Nino
- 46:41and Leninia and then look at the
- 46:44effects I just want to kind of end here
- 46:47with some north pole and south pole
- 46:50implications of what's happening on the
- 46:52sea surface and the influence of
- 46:54currents um sea ice formation when ice
- 46:57forms under cold conditions it excludes
- 47:01the salt salt. So those ions in salty
- 47:03water are excluded. So as I said before
- 47:06that sea ice formation, if it happens
- 47:08slowly, it excludes the the salt and you
- 47:10can actually drink it because it's pure
- 47:12water. You get these needle-ike crystals
- 47:14becoming slush and slush becomes a
- 47:16discshaped pancake ice as it's called in
- 47:19calmer waters and then pancake ice
- 47:21coaleses to form ice flows. Here you can
- 47:24see some of the pancake ice name is
- 47:27apppropo here and some of these ice
- 47:31flows. The rate of formation depends
- 47:33obviously on the temperature. It's
- 47:35self-perpetuating and ice flows thicken
- 47:38and form thick pressure ridges and they
- 47:40actually sometimes cleave together and
- 47:43uh form these uplifting areas of sea
- 47:48ice. Iceberg formation. Icebergs can
- 47:50break off of glaciers. This happens a
- 47:52lot in Antarctica which is glacier
- 47:54covered. Uh we have floating bodies of
- 47:57ice and we uh quite different from sea
- 47:59ice. Active icebergs can cave off from
- 48:02western Greenland glaciers and they do
- 48:04Antarctica. They're carried by currents.
- 48:06So they're predictable uh with current
- 48:09satellite imagery of looking at the
- 48:12current and the direction of the sea
- 48:14surface currents. As I said, Antarctica,
- 48:17the glaciers are covering that
- 48:19continent, and the edges we've seen
- 48:21break off. They are sometimes enormous,
- 48:23like this image. And sometimes they are
- 48:25enormous. This is an aerial view of part
- 48:27of a large tabular Antarctic iceberg,
- 48:31and it is around the size of the state
- 48:34of Delaware sometimes. So, we've spent
- 48:37most of this video on surface currents.
- 48:41Don't forget those deep currents. They
- 48:43are below below the picnocline. So this
- 48:45rapid change in density and temperature
- 48:48it represents most of the ocean water
- 48:51because most of the ocean water is in
- 48:52the deep ocean. They're slow velocities.
- 48:55So they move very slowly. The movement
- 48:57is caused by differences in density.
- 48:59Like I said, temperature and salinity
- 49:02and as we know cooler seawater is denser
- 49:04and saltier seawater is denser. So we
- 49:06have this two-layer system of that cold
- 49:08salty seawater sitting upon the top
- 49:10surface waters. These two systems set
- 49:13off an enormous conveyor belt called the
- 49:16North Atlantic deep
- 49:19water. This is how surface currents end
- 49:22up subsiding and then becoming deep
- 49:25ocean currents. The cold surface water
- 49:28sinks at the polar regions. So in the
- 49:31red we have all the near surface or
- 49:33shallow currents and in the blue we have
- 49:35the deep cold currents happening. So
- 49:38much of this we were talking about
- 49:40what's driving these currents, the
- 49:42surface currents, but now we're going to
- 49:44take one last video look to determine
- 49:47this North Atlantic North Atlantic deep
- 49:50water circulation and also globally how
- 49:53this circulates. Let's take a look.
- 49:55Oxygen gets mixed into the ocean by the
- 49:58churning action of waves, currents, and
- 50:01tides on the surface. But it's the great
- 50:04ocean conveyor that takes oxygen to the
- 50:07ocean's deepest
- 50:09depths. The conveyor moves surface water
- 50:12warmed at the equator toward the poles.
- 50:16As the water cools, it becomes denser
- 50:18and sinks to the deep ocean, taking life
- 50:22sustaining oxygen with it.
- 50:26How do we turn off the conveyor? We
- 50:28simply remove the difference in
- 50:30temperature between the poles and the
- 50:32tropics. We warm the poles. We keep the
- 50:35tropics the same temperature. That
- 50:37conveyor which is driven by heat
- 50:40differences stops. When it stops, we
- 50:43lose oxygen on the bottom and we start
- 50:45the mechanism to mass extinction. Okay.
- 50:48So, I want to go back here. We've looked
- 50:50at these surface currents and these gys,
- 50:52right? The warm water cooling becoming
- 50:55warmer, right? Those were surface
- 50:56currents. What happens? And we're just
- 50:58going to take the example of the Gulf
- 51:00Stream taking all that warm, deep water
- 51:04up to the poles. Yes, we know it cools
- 51:07off. And part of it becomes the surface
- 51:09currents, the northern boundary and the
- 51:11eastern boundary returning to the
- 51:13equator. Those are surface currents. But
- 51:15part of what happens is when that cold
- 51:17water meets that colder pole
- 51:19environment, what happens? Well, you get
- 51:22sea ice. Sea ice formation enriches the
- 51:25bottom of that sea ice with even more
- 51:28salts. Those salts become dense. So as
- 51:31you exclude those salts from the ice
- 51:34pack, you enrich that water with saltier
- 51:37water. It becomes really, really dense.
- 51:39And now it flows to the bottom of the
- 51:42basin of the ocean, cold, nutrient-rich
- 51:46water. And as this video said, oh by the
- 51:48way, there's oxygen in there. So we can
- 51:50deliver oxygen globally through this
- 51:53network of deep water conveyor belts.
- 51:55It's a complicated system, but I just
- 51:57wanted to say we've studied most of this
- 51:59stuff in this chapter as a surface
- 52:01phenomenon, but those packets of water,
- 52:04which are surface currents, sometimes
- 52:06descend and become this complicated
- 52:09system of moving water beneath the sea
- 52:12surface in the deep ocean. So the deep
- 52:15ocean currents are cold. They're oxygen
- 52:17rich, as we saw in that video.
- 52:20Dissolved oxygen is really important for
- 52:22life and for some of the processes that
- 52:24are happening at the bottom of the
- 52:27ocean. Changes in the
- 52:29thermocline circulation can cause global
- 52:32climate change. And that video alluded
- 52:34to that. If we start to mess around with
- 52:37heightened increases of temperatures on
- 52:39Earth, we start to break down this
- 52:41conveyor belt that exists and imparts
- 52:44oxygen and nutrient-rich waters to the
- 52:46deep ocean.
- 52:48example here, warmer surface waters are
- 52:51less dense. They won't sink and their
- 52:54less oxygen will be in the deep ocean as
- 52:56a ramification of
- 52:59that. So, that concludes chapter 7. It
- 53:02was a whirlwind tour. Probably one of
- 53:04the most heady or meaty information-wise
- 53:08of the chapters we've hit so far with
- 53:10some really cool phenomenons that are
- 53:13happening to impart the direction and
- 53:15the speed of these surface currents and
- 53:18a little bit towards the end about the
- 53:20circulation in the deep ocean. I hope
- 53:23you enjoyed it. We'll see you in the
- 53:24next chapter.
About this transcript
This page contains the full transcript of Chapter 7 by Jeffrey Ashley, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 8,792 words across 1,345 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.
What you can do with it
Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.
Free YouTube transcript tool
YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.