How are wind currents created?

How are wind currents created?

Moving air is called wind. The warmed air expands and becomes lighter than the surrounding air. It rises, creating a warm air current. Cooler, heavier air then pushes in to replace the warm air, forming a cool air current.

How a wave is formed?

Waves are created by energy passing through water, causing it to move in a circular motion. Wind-driven waves, or surface waves, are created by the friction between wind and surface water. As wind blows across the surface of the ocean or a lake, the continual disturbance creates a wave crest.

How is Earth’s air produced?

Volcanoes bubbled and released gases from the Earth’s interior for millions of years. The dominant gases released consisted of carbon dioxide, water vapor, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Over time these gases accumulated to form the Earth’s second atmosphere.

How do tides and currents work?

Tidal currents occur in conjunction with the rise and fall of the tide. The vertical motion of the tides near the shore causes the water to move horizontally, creating currents. As the tides rise and fall, they create flood and ebb currents.

What are currents responsible for?

Currents are responsible for circulating water throughout the earth’s oceans. This lesson will discuss surface ocean currents, deep water ocean currents, and the forces that drive them.

What are three ways ocean currents can form?

Ocean currents can be caused by wind, density differences in water masses caused by temperature and salinity variations, gravity, and events such as earthquakes or storms . Currents are cohesive streams of seawater that circulate through the ocean.

What are 3 factors that affect ocean currents?

Atmospheric pressure, winds, precipitation, evaporation and insolation. 3. Factors originating within the sea: Pressure gradient, temperature difference, salinity, density and melting of ice. 4. Factors modifying the ocean currents: Direction and shape of the coast, seasonal variations and bottom topography.

What are surface ocean currents primarily formed by?

Surface Ocean Currents. The water at the ocean surface is moved primarily by winds that blow in certain patterns because of the Earth s spin and the Coriolis Effect. Winds are able to move the top 400 meters of the ocean creating surface ocean currents. Surface ocean currents form large circular patterns called gyres .