1 / 15

Essential Question:

Essential Question: What role do Thermohaline Circulation, Coriolis Effect and Upwelling play in Oceans?. Ocean Currents. Wind-driven currents and tides are due to the gravity of moon and sun. Understanding Density. The container represents volume The molecules represent mass

carol-shannon
Download Presentation

Essential Question:

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Essential Question: What role do Thermohaline Circulation, Coriolis Effect and Upwelling play in Oceans?

  2. Ocean Currents Wind-driven currents and tides are due to the gravity of moon and sun

  3. Understanding Density The container represents volume The molecules represent mass The combination of the mass and volume is called DENSITY (heft). Density = Mass/Volume

  4. Seawater is Denser than Freshwater Fresh water has H2O molecules that have lots of space between them, much like the cup of marbles In a container (volume) there are only so many H2O molecules (mass) The combination of the mass and volume of the water in a container is called the DENSITY (heft) Is there volume (space) for something to be added that will only change the mass? How will this impact density?

  5. Water DensitySeawater is Denser than Freshwater Fill two beakers each with 200 ml water Place ONE beaker on the scale and get the mass Add ONE spoonful of salt – stir How did this change the water level (volume)? How did this change the water’s mass? Why did the water level not change, but the mass level did?

  6. How Does Freshwater and Saltwater Impact Oceans? Put a blue dye strip in the salty water and the red dye strip in the other – remove strips and dispose of them.

  7. Water DensitySeawater is Denser than Freshwater Pour the water into the two chambers as shown here

  8. Water DensitySeawater is Denser than Freshwater Carefully – without jiggling the box, pull the plastic divider out. Observe what happens – Why??

  9. Thermohaline circulation (thermo=temperature, haline=salt) Thermohaline circulation is the part of the ocean circulation which is driven by density differences. Sea water density depends on temperature and salinity. Differences arise from heating and cooling at the sea surface and the introduction of freshwater into the salty sea water. Heat sources at the ocean bottom play a minor role. 

  10. Thermohaline circulation (thermo=temperature, haline=salt) As currents move water near cold areas, it gets colder (denser) The wind evaporates water but not the salt  seawater becomes saltier  denser Currents at the bottom of ocean that moves “packs” of water with different densities (combination of salt and temperature) around the globe  THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION

  11. Coriolis Effect Water is flowing across the moving Earth – thus currents within the ocean are impacted by this movement. The water “follows the curve” caused by Earth’s spin. • https://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es1904/es1904page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

  12. How does upwelling work? • Wind + Coriolis force create a current flow • N-hemisphere: right of wind direction • S-hemisphere: left of wind direction • “Gaps” are filled with water from below, thus: • UPWELLING!!

  13. Upwellings http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2405/es2405page01.cfm How could you use your straw, the saran wrap and some water to simulate this action?

  14. Upwellings • Nutrients accumulate in deep waters as they move out of the photic zone (where nutrients get used up in photosynthesis) and  the remains of organisms sink and decompose   • Upwelling is the process by which deep, nutrient-rich bottom waters flow to the surface of the ocean • When the nutrients reach shallow water, where there is light, tiny algae (water plants) called phytoplankton use this as their primary nutrient source. These plants are the basis of the ocean food chain. • Upwelling areas are therefore very important for all animal life: from shrimp to blue whales

  15. Aquatic Life • Bigger sea-animals eat tiny animals and ocean floor debris • They depend on areas where they can find lots of food, like upwellings Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOMzFFh3rEA

More Related