The currents of the World Ocean - movement and life

Resting on the Yalta beach, swimming in the Black Sea water, it is difficult to imagine that the particles of this very water once washed the coast of Greenland or Antarctica. But this is not impossible, because the World Ocean (together with all its bays and seas) is a single whole. In some places, the fastest, sometimes slow, currents of the World Ocean are connected by the most remote corners of the world.

Acquaintance with them happened a very long time ago. The Spaniard Ponce de Leon (in 1513) went to sea to find the "Happy Islands". The ship landed in a stream of the Florida Current, which turned out to be so strong that the sailors could not cope with it. In the flow of the Northern Equatorial Current, Columbus sailed to America. Returning home, he told us that "the waters move with the sky in a western direction." American merchant sailors learned about the existence of the Gulf Stream in the 18th century.

The currents of the World Ocean, more precisely their speed and direction, were first determined by the drift of ships that had strayed from the intended course. The wreckage of the vessels wrecked also helped to determine their direction. Random objects floating in the sea were not enough, so the sailors began to throw overboard bottled bottles, which put a mailing card. The one who found the "trophy" indicated the place where he found the bottle, and riddled the card in the mail. Such messages have received the name of "bottled mail". Later, the bottles were replaced with waterproof plastic envelopes.

The main role in the formation of surface currents is played by winds. The Northern Equatorial Current (in the Atlantic Ocean) drives water into the Caribbean Sea, from where it flows through the Florida Strait and gives rise to the Gulf Stream. Kuroshio originates in the Pacific.

The warm Gulf Stream reaches the European shores and joins the Arctic Ocean and the Barents Sea, from which it returns already to the cold Greenland Current. On the way, some of the Gulf Stream water loses. This water forms a circular current in the North Atlantic.

It is not always necessary to understand literally the words "warm" or "cold" current. These names receive streams that violate the latitudinal distribution of temperature in the ocean, if the water in them is colder or warmer than the surrounding water.

For a long time it was believed that the powerful currents of the World Ocean, such as the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio, flow like rivers in the ocean. They actually differ from the surrounding water by salinity, color and temperature, but there is no continuous flow in them. The Gulf Stream, for example, is divided into separate streams, some of which deviate to the side and then completely separate from the main current.

Not so long ago it became known about the existence of a whole system of bottom currents. They are formed as a result of subsidence of the shelf waters of the Antarctic to the bottom of the World Ocean. Thus, transportation of sedimentary material is carried out and unique unidirectional flows are created, similar to waves in the coastal zone of the sea.

The currents of the World Ocean are the transporters of cold and heat, fish larvae, plankton and the way of moving cyclones. Very interesting is the frontal zone in the ocean. Stirring of water of different temperatures occurs quite violently.

Currents play a huge role in the life of the ocean. They have an impact on fish distribution, weather and climate.

To date, the British scientists compiled the most accurate map of the currents of the World Ocean. Its basis was the results of observations of the satellite GOCE. This map is designed to help climatologists in developing computer models of the state of affairs on our planet.