What is the origin of marine currents such as the Humboldt?
Marine currents affect the weather such as el niño phenomena ’cause of the different temperatures , but what gives these currents their direction and different temperature?
2 Responses
SallyC
01 Feb 2010
sargeantsandwich
01 Feb 2010
salt and temparature
Ocean currents are a result of differences in density driven by temperature and salinity, plus the effects of the rotation of the earth. Cold, deep currents originate in the polar regions, and move toward the equator, warming as they go and returning as warm surface currents.
It has been suggested that climate change may cause excessive melting of the polar ice caps, which would change the salinity of the currents and perhaps disrupt them.