WEBVTT - How Ocean Currents Work 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:12.920 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.520 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry and this 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.520 is Stuff you Should Know, the one about ocean currents. 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.840 We should start titling our episodes like Friends did. Yeah, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.240 the one where Ross talks about ocean currents. Yeah, the 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.920 one where Chuck's eyes glazed over. I love this stuff, man, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.800 Like Earth science really gets me jazz. That's good, it 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:43.080 really does. Like it's so like, it's very detailed. There's 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.880 a lot to it. It's often oversimplified, but it's also 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.920 very understandable. And when you really like learn about it, 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.960 you realize what an elegant system the whole thing is. Sure, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.840 maybe not necessarily a living organism, but I could see 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.680 how someone would characterize it as such. I like that. 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:08.000 It's good intro. Yeah, that's what I got. Uh so, Yes, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.360 tidal ocean currents, well, not tidal, that's part of the 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.039 ocean currents. It's a type of current. It's under the 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.800 current umbrella. I've misspoken the first ten seconds. I think 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.760 it's funny that in this article the word current refers 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:26.360 to the motion of water when speaking of water? Is 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.479 that what it says when speaking of water, the word 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.400 current refers to the motion of the water. Yeah, it 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:39.240 was a little clumsy Miriam's defines. Yeah, uh, well, this 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.959 is about ocean currents. Are all kinds of currents, river currents, Yeah, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.959 you know, there's currents in marshes and swamps and currents 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.080 all over the place. But this is about ocean currents. Yeah, 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.840 as long as water is not stagnant, there's currents present. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.480 And if it's stagnant, it's bad news Jack mosquitoes disease. Sure, 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.920 But then again, you can make the case that if 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.880 it's not stagnant, if if there's a current, it'll carry 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.880 your car away in the blink of an eye. I 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.800 don't even think about it. Boy, did you see the 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.720 photos of the Downtown Connector the other day in Atlanta 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.520 when it flooded. Apparently the storm drains backed up in 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.240 the downtown Connector of Atlanta was a lake. Wow, Like 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.800 it literally stopped traffic. I can believe that. Yeah, people 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:26.639 in Atlanta don't know how to drive in the rain 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:31.120 to begin with. Oh, I don't know about that really. Yeah, 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.360 that's all we do was driving the rain man. People 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.120 in l A don't have to driving the rain. Seems 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.480 to me like everybody's brain just drops a couple of 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.920 years when rain starts, and everyone starts like bumping into 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.639 everybody else and like driving it two miles an hour, 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.959 and you just like pedal to the metal. What's different 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:52.720 all the time. I got good tires. Yeah, Look, because 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.400 you liked our stores, right, I don't like tip stores, 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.080 but I'm willing to spend time there to get good 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:03.960 tires that move water away from my car so I 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.000 can if I have really fast no matter what the weather, 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.919 you should start your I want to point out. Jerry 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:15.160 just sighed heavily at this tangent. I think your retirement 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.040 business should be Josh's tire house. Yeah, and then have 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.800 a really sweet setup. Would be like fine tires. Just 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.280 here's like no place else on earth. Oh yeah, you 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.799 got WiFi. You got a coffee machine? Well there's well no, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.000 I mean a baristah, like a you know, a little 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.960 mini Starbucks right there in your tire shop. Games have 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.400 icebreakers meet and greets. Yeah, I could serve icebreakers come 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.720 to you get have tinder Tinder day. Okay, Well, I 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.080 don't know a Roman therapy would be good to be 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:50.760 a big one massage. Yeah, alright, let's my's my plan 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.480 b all right, Josh's tire warehouse and pourium, I think 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.560 is what we came up with. Josh's big house of 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:01.040 tires or house with big tires. Okay, so ocean currents 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.520 we're back to it. So um. One of the things 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.600 that I did not realize, Chuck, when researching this is 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:14.040 that ocean currents they're they're old, but they aren't permanent. 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.400 They haven't always been around. Currents change, you know. Some 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.760 currents have been at it for thousands and thousands of years. 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:25.400 Other currents change months a month, very fickle in some cases. 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.920 But there are some really ancient currents, some ancient ocean 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.599 currents out there that are um very old and have 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.160 been this way since say, like um, like the Gulf 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.520 Stream has been around for about five million years, ever 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:45.720 since the Isthmus of Panama. Pretty cool stuff, huh. Yeah. 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.720 I think what I found the most interesting was that 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.400 ocean currents they have a purpose. You know, it's not 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.640 just like water moving around willy nilly. You know. If 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:58.919 it wasn't for ocean currents, there would be no life 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.680 in Antarctica. Right, well, maybe not all of Antarctica, but 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:08.040 no ocean marine life. But that's that's an important point. Like, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.600 if there's no ocean marine life, then there's no like 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.599 to say, there's no phytoplankton, there's no phytoplankton, there's no 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.920 fishies eating the phytoplankton. There's no fishies around to eat 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.040 the phytoplankton. There's no seals to eat the fishies. If 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:28.440 there's no seals, Like, everything finds its support, its basis 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.719 in the ocean. Life that's all supported by the currents. 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.240 That's right. So the fact that has purpose, it's very 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.640 teleological of you, chuck. So let's not put this off anymonger. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.520 Let's talk about different types of currents. You can't talk 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:46.320 about tire stores anymore. Okay, we're done with the tire stores. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.520 Like I started to get nauseated just talking that much 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.320 about tire stores. Alright, I don't feel good. Well, uh, 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:54.880 let's start with surface currents then, but I'll bring you 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.680 back to the to the ocean earth science, your home 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:03.200 earth sciences that you love. Uh. Surface currents occur about 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:09.120 three to fo um deep and above. Yeah, they're called 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.000 surface currents, right, and they're driven by the wind. Yeah, 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.200 they make up for about ten percent of the ocean. 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.520 And um, if you've ever gone to the beach, you've 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:22.080 seen coastal currents. UM surface currents. There's a couple of types. 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.960 Coastal is one of them. You see them in action, right, 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.560 like playing in the sand as a little kid or 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.640 as an adult. You're you're seeing coastal surface currents at work. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:37.480 So let's step back one more degree. So service currents 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:42.320 are created by wave action, that's right. Especially coastal currents 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.200 are created by wave action, which is created by wind. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.279 Waves are created by wind. And you know Buckminster Fuller, 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.360 the inventor of the geodesic dome, among other great things, 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.440 he was the person who pointed out that the wind 0:06:55.440 --> 0:07:00.839 doesn't blow, the wind sucks. It's a good point, right, So, 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:04.720 and so if coastal currents begin with waves, waves begin 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:09.000 with wind. Wind begins with heat because at the equator 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.720 you have a lot of sunshine all year round and 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.880 it's very warm, as anyone who's been near the equator 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:21.240 can attest. Um, And that heat heats up air, and 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.080 as the air heats up, it moves away from the equator. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.280 It's like, I gotta go cool off. It moves towards 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.080 the poles north and south, and as it moves toward 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.640 the poles, it cools down and turns back around. It's 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.080 like I need to heat back up at the equator, right. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:38.880 And as a result of this, you have wind. And 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.040 this wind pushes on the surface of the water, transfer 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.720 some of its energy in the form of friction to 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.400 the water surface and creates waves and those waves transfer 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.920 the energy to shoreline and when they come in at 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.720 an angle, that's when you get that coastal current. Right. Yeah, 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:56.880 Like with you've again, if you ever been to the 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.520 beach and you see the tide or the waves coming 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:04.000 in at that angle, and you see it moving with 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.520 the beach, Like if you've ever been out playing on 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.520 like a raft is a little kid, you look up 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.880 an hour later and your parents are like half a 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:13.920 mile down the beach from where you start, right. It's 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.600 a bit of a panicky situation, it is. And also 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.400 you're like, what kind of parents do I have that 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.600 they just let me drift half a mile? Yea, you 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.440 know they're passed out in the sand at that point. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.760 Uh So that is called when when uh, a wave 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.240 breaks on the beach at that angle, it's gonna pull 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.160 sediment and sand and water down in what's known as 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.319 a long shore current. That is, uh it's directed off parallel, 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.400 also perpendicular, but the parallel movement is the long shore 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.320 uh current. Yeah. It's like when a wave comes into 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.840 an angle to the shore, it distributes its energy. Part 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.560 of it directly on to the shore. Part of it 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.760 parallels is short and um, that's that long shore current, 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:52.719 like you said. And one of the things that it does, 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.120 you also said, is it takes sand and other stuff 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.640 and deposits it elsewhere further down and along the way. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.680 It creates things like barrier islands and sandbars and all 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:09.280 that stuff. And that's ever shifting, ever moving, um, eroding 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:14.760 and depositing of sand and sediment and those little underwater 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.959 and sometimes above water deposits create other types of current, 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:23.400 specifically a riptide current. Yeah. Um, that's the longshore drift 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.720 and um, like if you've ever seen like the beach 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.679 curve back in pretty hard. The water can't make that 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.000 turn really, so it's just gonna deposit stuff and sort 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:35.480 of drop it off there at the end of that 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:39.600 point and it'll build up and what's known as a spit, right, 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:44.640 and so all of those, all those obstructions, um, all 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.640 those deposits form obstructions for waves. When they're going back 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.400 out once they transfer their energy, they're like, oh, I'm 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.360 pretty far inland. I need to get back out of 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:58.920 the ocean. Yeah, And so it backs up right, and 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.520 as it does encounters these underwater barriers that it itself 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:08.240 have deposited. It's kind of a big ironic moment. And 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.120 so it can't get back out to see as fast 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.400 as it wants because it's running into these obstructions. And 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.160 when there's like a break in the obstruction, like a 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.320 sandbar or something like that had a break in the sandbar, 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.800 it provides a natural funnel and that creates a rip 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.160 tide current. Yeah, like, hey, look at that little narrow channel. 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.920 I'm gonna take all this water that would normally just 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.640 flow out nice and easy. I'm gonna send it through there, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.360 and I'm gonna grab your little kid and take it 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.240 taken with me. Right. If this, it creates basically suction. 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.680 Just like when you open a drain in a bathtub 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.040 and it starts to drain, it drains pretty quick. Yeah, 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.040 it's dangerous, Like that's how you drown when you're swimming 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.120 in the ocean. You hear about strong rip currents and 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.920 inclement weather and um, it's no joke. Even really good 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.520 swimmers can get caught in a ripping. Yeah, and it's 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:00.880 bad news riptide, very bad news. Um. And then there's 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.520 some other currents that are created that um don't just 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.600 occur at the at the shore, but they do. They 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.440 occur in the ocean and at the shore there's this 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.880 thing called upwelling. This stuff and upwelling can happen in 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.920 a few different ways, but as far as the coast 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:22.280 is concerned. When wind comes in and it basically blows 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.800 water away from an area, like from the shore, right, 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.559 water likes to try to even itself out. So as 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.720 some water is blown away from the surface, this stuff 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.720 that's below it, the deeper water will come up and 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:40.240 basically replace it, and that's upwelling. Yeah. It's another like 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.280 what strikes me when you look at wind and all 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.640 these currents. Everything is circular almost right, so a lot 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.440 of spinning going on. Yeah, there's a really um distinct 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:53.800 relationship between wind and water. It's inseparable, especially when you're 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.960 talking about global winds and currents together, right, But both 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.680 of them are broken down to fluid dynamic X and 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.280 they do form these circles and cycles and clockwise motions 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.800 and counterclockwise motions depending on where you are in the world. Yeah. 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.000 And in the case of upwelling and downwelling, it's not 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:14.679 a horizontal spin, but it is a vertical um from 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:16.880 top to bottom and then from bottom back up to 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.640 the top. Yeah. And you want to talk about um 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.959 that was which one. Well, both it's the same pattern 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.560 from top to bottom and bottom to top with upwelling 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.400 and down welling. Right. And the whole thing about upwelling 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.240 and downwelling, whether it's at the shore or in the ocean, um, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:38.080 is that the ocean is kind of It's not like 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.360 if you take a slice of ocean at the top, 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.640 you take a slice of ocean at the bottom, very 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.000 different and you look at them. Yeah, under a microscope 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.600 or test um for whatever, you know, using some sort 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:53.600 of uh, spectroscope, maybe some sort of oscillator, glavin or 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.280 something like that, or just look at it. Yeah, you're 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.400 going to find that there's it's like two different types 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.520 of water. Even though it's from the same part of 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.920 it's from the same section of ocean, right, And the 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.600 stuff at the top is going to be very oxygen rich. 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.400 There's gonna be a lot of life phytoplankton, that kind 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.240 of stuff, um, but not too many nutrients. The stuff 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.240 at the bottom is gonna be lousy with C O two. Yeah, 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.880 very cold and a lot of nutrients. Right. And when 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.320 both of these things are needed at different spots, So 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.600 the upwelling and the downwelling creates this kind of gas 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:34.199 exchange and nutrient exchange throughout the ocean. And the oxygen 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.040 at the top when it's deposited down lower thanks to 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:41.120 down welling, all of that oxygen circulates downward through the 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.600 ocean and all the fishies that need oxygen in their 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.880 gills get to breathe it in, right. Yeah. And with upwelling, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.960 like I mentioned earlier in Antarctica, where it's super cold 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.079 and you would not expect marine life to do so well, 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.920 it is because of the upwelling that brings the nutrients 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.280 from the bottom up to the top. And that's iCal 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.440 and that's called life. And one other really neat thing 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:07.000 about upwelling and down welling is um that oxygen that's 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.679 at the top of the ocean. Were it to just 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.559 sit there for very long and dissolve, we would have 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.839 a very big problem because all of that life, once 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:21.760 it dies, would decay very quickly up tops. No, it wouldn't, 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.080 because anaerobic bacteria would begin to thrive and we'd have 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.520 a over abundance of hydrogen sulfide, which would lead to 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.080 ocean acidification, which would mean the end of the world. Basically, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.000 So that nutrient swap is very important for everybody on 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.880 the planet. Yeah, and there's this elegant solution to the 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.480 oceans that happens every day everywhere in the ocean thanks 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.960 to upwelling and downwelling. All right, well that's a good start, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.480 my friend. Um my eyes are not glazed over, actually good, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.320 they're sharp, full of life. Um. We will talk after 0:14:53.360 --> 0:15:16.920 this break about some more surface currents. All right, Josh, 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.600 there's more than one kind of surface current. We covered 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.880 the I kind of like that first part, but there's 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:27.120 also surface ocean currents. And uh, again, the wind is 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:32.359 the big contributor to how these babies form um and specifically, 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.120 I guess we should talk about the Coriolis effect. Yeah, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.680 this is a this is a game changer, as people 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.440 who read self help books on airplanes would call it. Right, yeah, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.440 so um. Again, it all starts with heat, and all 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:52.560 that heat is found in its thickest part at the equator. 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.280 And my brain is broken. So at the equator it's 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.200 the hottest, right, that's right. And it's also also a 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.160 spinning fast or the equator than at the poles, right, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.000 it is okay, so um, it's the Earth that is yeah, 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.280 so um. At the equator it's hot, it's spinning faster 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.560 because of the spin. Because of the heat. The ocean 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:17.800 is actually about eight centimeters high higher here than at 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.120 the rest of the ocean. That's so much higher, So 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.200 there's a right, it's just enough to make water flow 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:28.120 away from the equator. Plus you've got wind that's whipped 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.240 up because hot air at the equator starts moving northward 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.360 and cools down and that creates wind. Right, So if 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.120 the Earth didn't rotate, you would still have these things. 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.720 But wind would travel in a straight line away from 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.120 the equator towards the poles, cool down and turn around 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.320 and come back in a straight line. That's right. But 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.360 that's not the case. No, it isn't because the Earth 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.640 does rotate and it produces the Coriolis effect. Yeah, it's 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.560 like a curve. Basically, it uh curves to the right 0:16:57.560 --> 0:16:59.360 in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.080 southern hemisp here. Right, so it makes wind curve and 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.200 since wind drives surface currents, it makes surface currents curve 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.639 as well. Right, that's right. So what's really cool is 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:15.280 the ocean has its own topography. It's it's definitely not fight. 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.080 Anybody who's looked at ocean could be like, oh, it's 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.560 pretty choppy. But if you if you could step back 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:24.480 even further and you had the right kind of topographical 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.160 glasses on, maybe you would see that there's like valleys 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.600 and ocean and mountains and maybe not mountains, but little 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.120 tiny hills and valleys in the ocean. So, like I said, 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.480 it has its own topography. And this is created by 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.400 those winds that push on the water. And as they're 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.280 pushing the water up and the Coriolis effect is turning 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.159 at some water starts to kind of mound. So in 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:50.760 some parts of the ocean you have water that forms 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.200 a mountain that's about like three to six ft tall. Yeah, 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:59.159 it doesn't sound intuitive, no water mounding up on itself. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.200 You think if it as ye, But there is actually 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.080 water that's mounded up into little hills, okay. And so 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:11.320 that means that gravity wants to push this water downward, right, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:14.600 But it doesn't just go back down the hill, because 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:20.359 the Coriolis effect pushes it upward. And the net outcome 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.439 is that instead the water just says, how about it 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.159 just go around instead? Yeah, you stay up here on 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:29.640 the mound, you stay down here, but I AM going 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.480 to just go around. And what it does is, since 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.080 a mound is roughly circular, it creates a current that 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.399 goes around these things, around these mounds. And there's five 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.439 major ones in the entire world where you're headed, and 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:46.160 they form what are called gyres, that's right, g y R, E, S, 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.880 and um. They are the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.880 South Pacific, and then the Indian Ocean has its very 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.280 own gyre. There are smaller ones around Antarctica, but those 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:01.480 are the five major gyres. We about the Gulf Stream earlier. 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.240 That is a part of the North Atlantic gyre, and 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:10.760 it carries times the water of the entire Mississippi River. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.679 The Gulf Stream does. Yeah, the Gulf Stream is the 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.800 hero of all gyres. It is it moves um. Let 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.119 me see, I've got to find this one because this 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.240 is so amazing. So the the Gulf Stream, at any 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:30.719 given point, it moves water at a rate of fifteen 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:37.520 superdomes worth per second. So you remember the superdome in Louisiana. Yes, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.680 say you've filled it with water, and then you took 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.840 copied fourteen more times, so you have fifteen superdomes full 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.000 of water. That's how much water passes through any given 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.800 point per second. Okay in the Gulf Stream. All right, 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.119 that's a lot of water. How many big max is 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.919 at It's trillions of big max billions and billions served. 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.680 But the the Gulf Stream itself is actually um. It's 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:11.720 technically the western boundary current of the North Atlantic gyre. Yeah, 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:13.960 and it's gonna carry warm water. It's it has a 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.359 big impact in the world. It's gonna carry warm water 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.400 up north from the Gulf of Mexico. And that's why 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.240 if you're living on the east coast of Florida, you're 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.679 gonna have cooler summers and warmer winters. Um. Western Europe 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:29.760 is gonna be a lot warmer than other places on 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.600 its exact same latitude. And this is all because of 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.560 the Gulf Stream. You can deposit bodies in it if 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.240 you're dexter, and those things are gonna yep, see a 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.920 later body. Yeah, it will probably get carried to England 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.800 and they'll be like blind, me was this? Uh So 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.720 that's just the Gulf Stream. There's actually at least four 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.520 major currents that form the boundary currents of the North 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.040 Atlantic Gyre, and the North Atlantic Gire is just one. 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.440 We've also talked about jarres before with the Great Pacific 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.359 Garbage Patch. Yeah we covered did we do waves or 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.120 did we just do We did rogue waves too, but 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.920 we covered waves and surfing. Okay, ye remember that. Um 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:13.359 But these these boundary currents are created again in part 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.800 by the the winds flowing away from the um equator, 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.480 the Coriolis effect, turning the waves and the mounds of 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:26.360 water circulating the waves in around them. So you've got 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.760 these like just clockwise or counterclockwise depending on which hemisphere 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:33.840 you are, currents that are just massive that move water 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.800 around and again they cycle nutrients. Like you said, they 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:42.520 affect the weather because they deposit warm water from the 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.280 south up to all the way up to England apparently. 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:51.920 Um so you know, England is on the same latitude 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:57.000 as like, um, some glacial parts of Canada. Yeah, that 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.480 makes sense. But they're they're winners, are like nothing into that, 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:04.159 you know, Thank you ocean. Same thing as a Bermuda 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.919 is very temperate, has very nice climate, and it's on 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.320 the same latitude as North Carolina, which is you know, 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.720 it can get kind of cold there. That's all thanks 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.640 to the Gulf Stream. Thank you Gulf Stream. And if 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.600 you want to thank the Gulf Stream, Chuck, you can 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.399 thank Ben Franklin because he's the one who named it. Yeah. 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.280 As the first Postmaster General of the United States, he 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.360 wanted to figure out why Mayo took so many more 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.960 weeks longer to get from England to the US than 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.360 it did from the US to England, because they're they're 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.359 going against traffic exactly. But he didn't know that, and 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.680 he found out and he took some measurements and roughly 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.720 charted the Gulf Stream back in the eighteenth century. He 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.000 was a smart dude, he really was. That was pretty amazing. 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:52.199 I didn't know he dabbled in oceanography. But again, the 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.199 Gulf stream amazing, and it's just one boundary current of 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.119 one major gyre. Yeah, it's kind of a hypnotic. If 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.960 you look at these motion maps of global motion maps 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:06.880 of like trade winds and ocean currents. Yeah, I could 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:09.639 watch those videos all day. It's just stuff spinning around 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.320 and like traveling around, and it's really it's soothing, and 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.040 especially when they do like heat gradients or topographical gradients, 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.199 so it's really colorful too, and it's ever shifting. You 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.560 can just get a little jewel out of the corner 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:24.280 of my mouth when I watched though, it's about as 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:27.200 good as watching Phantasia. Um. There's one other thing we 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:30.760 should say about those surface currents is they drag on 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:34.159 the water below them, right, So the wind is transferring 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:38.040 its energy to the surface of the water. Yeah, and 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:40.640 it drags a little bit less is the deeper you go. Right. 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:45.840 Apparently though, the current that the motion of water, um 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:50.920 usually goes in opposition to the motion of wind. So 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:52.760 what you end up having if you could take a 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:56.280 column slice from top to bottom of the ocean, you 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.240 would find that the water ultimately is making a very 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:02.480 long down words spiral. Yeah. So, and that's called the 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:06.080 ekmun spiral. Yeah, that there's a graphic of that that 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.399