How does convection cause ocean currents quizlet?
Explain how the process of convection can cause ocean currents. Water is warmed by the energy from the sun. When this warm water loses heat and cools, it becomes denser and begins to sink down. This constant exchange of heat energy creates convection currents as warm water rises and cold water sinks.
How does convection work in the ocean?
Consequently, salinity increases and temperature decreases, causing the waters to become denser and therefore sink through the convection process. This sinking process is known as downwelling, and is vital in driving ocean currents by feeding water into the deep water currents which transports it back to the tropics.
What do convection currents cause?
Convection currents drive the movement of Earth's rigid tectonic plates in the planet's fluid molten mantle. In places where convection currents rise up towards the crust's surface, tectonic plates move away from each other in a process known as seafloor spreading (Fig. 7.21).
How do ocean currents occur?
Ocean currents are driven by wind, water density differences, and tides. Oceanic currents describe the movement of water from one location to another. Currents are generally measured in meters per second or in knots (1 knot = 1.85 kilometers per hour or 1.15 miles per hour).
What causes ocean currents quizlet?
A directional movement of ocean water; surface currents result from steady winds over the ocean surface; deep ocean currents result from density variations due to temperature and salinity differences.
How do convection currents in the ocean occur describe the process what happens to water at the equator and at the poles?
Ocean Convection Convection drives the Gulf Stream and other currents that turn over and mix up the waters in the world's oceans. Cold polar water is drawn down from higher latitudes and sinks to the ocean bottom, pulled down toward the equator as lighter, warmer water rises to the ocean's surface.
What is convection currents How does it form land and sea breeze?
In the evening , air above the land, being more heated, expands, rises up and the colder air from above the sea surface blows towards the land to take its place. This sets up he convection currents which forms the sea breeze.
Where do convection currents happen?
The mantle within the earth's surface flows due to convection currents. These currents are mainly caused by a very hot material present in the deepest part of the mantle which rises upwards, then cools, sinks, again and again, repeating the same process of heating and rising.
What is meant by convection current?
Definition of convection current 1a : a stream of fluid propelled by thermal convection. b : thermally produced vertical air flow. 2 : a surface charge of electricity on a moving body — compare convection sense 3c.
Which best describes how ocean currents are created?
The main reason by which the ocean currents are formed is the rotation of earth. The earth rotates on its own axis and due to this reason there is a huge mixing of the water from the equator and poles which is termed as ocean currents.
What causes ocean currents?
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 causes ocean surface currents?
Winds, water density, and tides all drive ocean currents. Coastal and sea floor features influence their location, direction, and speed. Earth's rotation results in the Coriolis effect which also influences ocean currents.
What causes currents in the ocean?
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.
Is a sea breeze a convection process?
You may enjoy the gentle breezes at seashore, but you may not know that these breezes are formed by convection of air currents. Recall that water has a higher specific heat capacity than land, therefore the land has a higher temperature than the sea as the sun shines over them in the daytime.
What is convection current theory?
Holmes theorized that convection currents move through the mantle the same way heated air circulates through a room, and radically reshape the Earth's surface in the process.
Which statement describes how convection moves heat in the ocean?
It involves the transport of heat through convection, which is the movement of heat through liquids and gases. Which statement describes how convection moves heat in the ocean during non-El Niño (normal) years? – Convection moves heat toward the west.
How are convection currents responsible for the sea and land breezes?
As the warmer air rises by convection, cooler air is drawn from the ocean to fill the void. The warmer air mass returns to sea at higher levels to complete a convective cell. Accordingly, during the day, there is usually a cooling sea breeze blowing from the ocean to the shore.
How do convection currents cause sea breeze?
The ground heats the air above it, which rises in convection currents and cooler air from over the ocean flows toward the shore to “fill in the gap” left by the rising warm air. This flow of cooler air from the ocean toward the shore creates what is known as a sea breeze.
What is meant by convection explain with the help of an example?
Solution : The cycle of warm fluid going above cold fluid simultaneously is called convection. For example when you heat a bucket of water and put your hand in it and take out half of your hand will tell that water is hot and the other hand will tell that the water is cold. This happens because of convection.
What is convection in the ocean called?
Oceanic convection to great depths occurs at only a few locations in the world. Nonetheless, it is believed to be the process by which the properties of the surface ocean and deep ocean are connected, with important consequences for the global thermohaline circulation and climate.
How are convection currents set up in air explain with diagram?
Answer: Sea breezes:during day time , land becomes more heated than the sea . In the evening , air above the land, being more heated, expands, rises up and the colder air from above the sea surface blows towards the land to take its place. This sets up he convection currents which forms the sea breeze.
What is convection short answer?
Convection is the circular motion that happens when warmer air or liquid — which has faster moving molecules, making it less dense — rises, while the cooler air or liquid drops down.
Do oceans experience convection?
Oceanic convection to great depths occurs at only a few locations in the world. Nonetheless, it is believed to be the process by which the properties of the surface ocean and deep ocean are connected, with important consequences for the global thermohaline circulation and climate.
How does convection currents take place in land and sea breeze?
The ground has a lower specific heat and so its temperature increases more than the temperature of the water. The ground heats the air above it, which rises in convection currents and cooler air from over the ocean flows toward the shore to “fill in the gap” left by the rising warm air.
How does convection occur?
Convection occurs when there is a difference in thermal energy in a liquid or a gas. The area with greater thermal energy causes an increase in temperature, or molecular kinetic energy. This causes the molecules to move faster and spread out, decreasing the density of the substance.
What’s the process of convection?
Convection is the process of heat transfer by the bulk movement of molecules within fluids such as gases and liquids. The initial heat transfer between the object and the fluid takes place through conduction, but the bulk heat transfer happens due to the motion of the fluid.
How is heat transferred throughout the ocean?
Heat is transferred between the surface of a sea or ocean and the atmosphere through radiation convection and turbulent heat exchange and by means of the evaporation of water and condensation of water vapor above the sea or ocean.
How can you describe convection current?
Convection currents are flowing fluid that is moving because there is a temperature or density difference within the material. Because particles within a solid are fixed in place, convection currents are seen only in gases and liquids.
What do convection currents occur in?
Convection currents occur within:
- the geosphere – plate tectonics.
- the atmosphere – wind.
- the hydrosphere – ocean currents.
How is heat transferred through convection?
Convection. Convective heat transfer is the transfer of heat between two bodies by currents of moving gas or fluid. In free convection, air or water moves away from the heated body as the warm air or water rises and is replaced by a cooler parcel of air or water.