Earth's Rotation Influences Ocean Currents
Graduate Research Assistant
Columbia University
Columbia University
Julius Busecke is a Ph.D. candidate at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Kiel, Germany in 2010. His interests include the ocean's role in the global freshwater cycle, mixing and transport by ocean eddies, and the influence of ocean eddies on the oceanic surface variability.
Webinar Clip
A whole host of factors influence ocean circulation, including seawater temperature and salinity. Winds blowing along the surface of the ocean also play a major role in determining how water moves around the globe. In this clip, Julius explains how this system, combined with the rotation of the earth, works and what it means for something like gyre formation in the North Atlantic Ocean.Full webinar: Changes In Latitude
Click here for a transcript of this clip (PDF, 42.8 KB). |
Resources
Applicable Science Standards
- Developing and Using Models. A practice of both science and engineering is to use and construct models as helpful tools for representing ideas and explanations. These tools include diagrams, drawings, physical replicas, mathematical representations, analogies, and computer simulations.
- Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. The goal of science is the construction of theories that provide explanatory accounts of the world. A theory becomes accepted when it has multiple lines of empirical evidence and greater explanatory power of phenomena than previous theories.