ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 41: Thermocline, Deep Zone Project, Trade Winds

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

The ocean is widely unexplored, is a mystery. Ocean water is vertically structured (the top is not the same as the bottom) there is vertical variation in: temperature (thermocline) Surface water is heated by solar energy; colder, saltier water is denser and sinks: salinity (halocline, density (piclocline) Low density, warmed by sunlight, moved by wind. Water is moved only by deep ocean currents. Vertical and horizontal flows: upwelling= very productive, the movement of water and something must fill the void being made the lower water. Ex: blowing on coffee to allow cool water to move: downwelling = water where most stuff dies on that was on the surface, sinks down. Gulf streams= help warm the net temperature of its surroundings. The day after tomorrow: if gulf streams failed & thermohaline circulation failed. Thermo-haline circulation: the deep circulation arrows around the world.