WEBVTT - Selects: How Ocean Currents Work 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:02.759 All right, everyone, Charles W. Chuck Bryant. 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.920 Here on a wonderful sunny Saturday afternoon, everywhere I can 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:09.440 forecast into the future and guarantee that wherever you are 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.840 right now, it is a lovely, wonderful Saturday afternoon. This 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.840 one harkens back to June fourth, twenty fifteen, which was 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.239 also a lovely sunny day, but probably just a Tuesday 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.200 or a Thursday. This one is how ocean currents work, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:24.400 and it was super fascinating. 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:25.959 Never knew anything about. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:31.760 It, and now I do, and now you do too. 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:42.400 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know. A production of iHeartRadio. Hey, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.600 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.920 Chuck Bryant, and Jerry And this is stuff you should know, 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:52.360 the one about ocean currents. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.720 We should start titling our episodes like Friends did. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.720 Yeah, the one where Ross talks about ocean current Yeah, the. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:02.560 One where Chuck's eyes glazed over. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.280 I love this stuff, man, Yeah, Like Earth's science really 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.600 gets me jazzed. That's good, it really does. Like it's 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.560 so like it's very detailed. 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:15.960 Yeah, there's a lot to it. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:21.319 It's often oversimplified, but it's also very understandable, and when 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.360 you really like learn about it, you realize what an 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.000 elegant system the whole thing is. Sure, maybe not necessarily 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:32.000 a living organism, but I could see how someone would 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:33.119 characterize it as such. 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:35.800 Yeah, I like that. It's good intro. 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:37.319 That's what I got. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:42.559 So, yes, title ocean currents, well, not title, that's part 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:43.360 of the ocean currency. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.400 It's a type of current. Yeah, it's under the current umbrella. 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.840 I've misspoken in the first ten seconds. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.280 I think it's funny that in this article the word 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.360 current refers to the motion of water when speaking of water. 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:58.440 Is that what it says? 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.720 Yeah, speaking of water. Yea, the word current refers to 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:03.680 the motion of the water. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:04.200 Yeah. 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.080 Yeah, that was a little clumsy Miriam's defines. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.800 Yeah, well, this is about ocean currents. There are all 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.040 kinds of currents, river currents, yeah, you know, there's currents 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.080 in marshes and swamps and currents all over the place. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.200 But this is about ocean currents. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.239 Yeah, as long as water's not stagnant, there's currents present. 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:24.720 Yeah. 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.560 If it's stagnant, it's bad news. Jack mosquitoes disease. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.000 Sure, but then again, junk you can make the case 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.040 that if it's not stagnant, if there's a current, it'll 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.920 carry your car away in the blink of an eye. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:39.440 Don't even think about it. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.200 Boy, did you see the photos of the Downtown Connector 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.400 the other day in Atlanta when it flooded. No, apparently 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.120 the storm drains backed up in the downtown Connector of 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:50.560 Atlanta was a lake. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.280 Wow, Like it literally stopped traffic. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.120 I can believe that. Yeah, people in Atlanta don't know 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:58.720 how to drive in the rain to begin with. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.919 Oh, I don't know about that really. Yeah, that's all 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.080 we do is driving the rain. Man, people in La 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:06.160 don't drive in the rain. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.800 Seems to me like everybody's brain just drops a couple 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:13.120 of years when rain starts, and everyone starts like bumping 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.800 into everybody else and like driving it two miles an 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:16.760 hour and. 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.400 You just like pedal through the metal. Yeah, what's different? 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.320 All the time? I got good tires. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.120 Yeah, looks as you like tire stores. 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.919 I don't like tires stores, but I'm willing to spend 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.000 time there to get good tires. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:31.520 Yeah. 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:36.120 That move water away from my car so I can 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.440 drive really fast no matter what the weather. 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.520 You should start your retireble on. 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.119 I want to point out Jerry just sighed heavily at 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:44.840 this tangent. 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:50.000 I think your retirement business should be Josh's Tire House Emporium. Yeah, 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.320 and then have a really sweet setup. We'd be like 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.920 buying tires here is like no place else on earth. 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.800 Oh yeah, you got Wi Fi. You got a coffee machine. 0:03:58.040 --> 0:03:58.760 Well there's coffee. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:00.720 Well, no, I mean resta. 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.080 Oh gotcha, like a you know, a little mini Starbucks 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:07.200 right there in your tires. Sure, games have icebreakers, meet 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:07.720 and greets. 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.040 Yeah, I could serve icebreakers, gum too. 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:11.600 You have tender tender day. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.440 Okay, you know else, I don't know, that's all I got. 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:16.920 Aroma therapy would be good. 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:18.880 Yeah, it would be a big one massage. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.960 Yeah, all right, that's my it's my plan. B all right, 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.200 Josh's tire Warehouse and Porium, I think is what we 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:26.640 came up with. 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.239 Sure, Josh's big House of tires or house of big tires. 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:35.480 Okay, So ocean currents, we're back to it. So one 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.040 of the things that I did not realize, Chuck, when 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:43.760 researching this is that ocean currents they're they're old, but 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.719 there they aren't permanent. They haven't always been around. Yeah, 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.680 currents change, you know, some currents have been at it 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.279 for thousands and thousands of years. Other currents change months 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.720 and month. They're very fickle in some cases. But there 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.920 are some really ancient currents, some ancient ocean currents out 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:05.120 there that are very old and have been this way since, 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:10.000 say like like the Gulf Stream has been around for 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:15.000 about five million years, ever since the Isthmus of Panama. Yeah, 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:16.799 pretty cool stuff, huh. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:17.120 Yeah. 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.080 I think what I found the most interesting was that 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.840 ocean currents they have a purpose. You know, it's not 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.080 just like water moving around willy nilly. You know, if 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.279 it wasn't for ocean currents, there would be no life 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.240 in Antarctica. Well maybe not all of Antarctica, but no 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:35.479 ocean marine life. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:37.040 They make that possible. 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.360 But that's an important point. Like if there's no ocean 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:45.360 marine life, then there's no like say there's no fido plankton. Sure, 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.640 there's no fital plankton. There's no fishies eating the fyto plankton. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.600 There's no fishies around to eat the fyto plankton. There's 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.440 no seals to eat the fishies. If there's no seals, 0:05:54.880 --> 0:06:02.560 like everything finds its support, its basis in that ocean life. Absolutely, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.159 that's all supported by the currents. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:04.680 That's right. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.160 So the fact that as purpose, it's very teleological of you, chuck, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.080 thank you. So let's not put this off any longer. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.080 Let's talk about different types of currents. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.159 You can't talk about tire stores anymore. 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:17.960 No, Okay, we're done with the tire stores. Like I 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.839 started to get nauseated just talking that much about tire stores. 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.120 Oh really, all right, I don't feel good. 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.200 Well let's start with surface currents then, buddy, I'll bring 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.400 you back to the ocean. Earth science, your home, Earth 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:35.120 sciences that you love. Surface currents occur about three to 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.280 four hundred meters deep and above. 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:39.880 That. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:41.280 Yeah, they're called surface. 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:42.800 Currents, right, and they're driven by the wind. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:43.440 Yeah. 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:45.640 They make up for about ten percent of the ocean. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.239 And if you've ever gone to the beach, you've seen 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:50.679 coastal currents. 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.440 Surface currents. There's a couple of types. Coastal is one 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:54.640 of them. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.279 You've seen them in action, right, like playing in the 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.440 sand as a little kid or as an adult. You're 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.080 seeing coastal surface currents at work. 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:03.360 Right. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:08.640 So let's step back one more degree. So service. Currents 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.240 are created by wave. 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:12.160 Action, that's right. 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.920 Especially coastal currents are created by wave action, which is 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.440 created by wind. Waves are created by wind. And you 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.840 know Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome, among 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.200 other great things. Sure he was the person who pointed 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.640 out that the wind doesn't blow, the wind sucks. That's 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:34.560 a good point, right, So and so if coastal currents 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.360 begin with waves, waves begin with wind. Wind begins with 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.160 heat because at the equator you have a lot of 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.080 sunshine all year round and it's very warm, as anyone 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.920 who's been near the equator can attest. And that heat 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.960 heats up air. And as the air heats up, it 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.800 moves away from the equator. It's like, I gotta go 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.400 cool off. It moves towards the poles north end south 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.400 and as it moves toward the poles, it cools down 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:05.960 and turns. Background is like I need to heap back 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.600 up at the equator. Yeah, right, And as a result 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.560 of this, you have wind. And this wind, yeah, pushes 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.040 on the surface of the water, transfers some of its 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.240 energy in the form of friction to the water surface, 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.400 and creates waves. And those waves transfer the energy to 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.000 the shoreline, and when they come in in an angle, 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.480 that's when you get that coastal current. Right. 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.200 Yeah, Like if you've again, if you've ever been to 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.640 the beach and you see the tide or the waves 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.360 coming in at that angle, and you see it moving 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.840 with the beach, Like if you've ever been out playing 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.760 on like a raft as a little kid, you look 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.160 up an hour later and your parents are like half 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:44.800 a mile down the beach from where you start, right. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:47.080 It's a bit of a panicky situation. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.360 It is. And also you're like, what kind of parents 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:50.959 do I have that they just let me drift half 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:51.400 a mile? 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.480 Yeah, you know, they're passed out in the sand at 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:53.840 that point. 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:54.800 Yeah. 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:55.959 So that is called. 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:59.600 When a wave breaks on the beach at that angle, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.000 it's gonna pull sediment and sand and water down in 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.520 what's known as a long shore current. That is it's 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.200 directed off parallel, also perpendicular, but the parallel movement is 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.000 the long shore current. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:13.959 Yeah. It's like when a wave comes in in an 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.280 angle to the shore, Yep, it distributes its energy, part 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.560 of it directly onto the shore, part of it parallel 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.760 to the shore. That's that long short current, like you said, 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.000 and one of the things that it does you also said, 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.239 is it takes that sand and other stuff and deposits 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:32.120 it elsewhere further down and along the way. It creates 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.600 things like barrier islands and sand bars and all that stuff. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:41.720 And that's ever shifting, ever moving, eroding and depositing of 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:47.200 sand and sediment, and those little underwater and sometimes above 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.079 water deposits create other types of current, specifically a riptide current. 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.840 Yeah, that's the long shore drift. 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.480 And like, if you've ever seen like the beach curve 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.720 back end pretty hard. The water can't make that turn really, 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.800 so it's just gonna deposit stuff and sort of drop 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:07.760 it off there at the end of that point, and 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.959 it'll build up in what's known as a. 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:16.200 Spit, right, And so yeah, all those obstructions, all of 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.240 those deposits form obstructions for waves when they're going back out. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.200 Once they transfer their energy, they're like, oh, I'm pretty 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.640 far inland. I need to get back out the ocean. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:31.200 And so it backs up right, and as it does, 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:36.040 it encounters these underwater barriers that it itself have deposited. 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.000 It's kind of a big ironic moment, and so it 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:41.800 can't get back out to see as fast as it 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.280 wants because it's running in these obstructions. And when there's 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.200 like a break in the obstruction, like a sandbar or 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.040 something like that, a break in the sandbar, it provides 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.880 a natural funnel and that creates a riptide current. 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.800 Yeah, like, hey, look at that little narrow channel. I'm 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.600 gonna take all this water that would normally just flow 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.560 out and I and easy, I'm going to send it 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.280 through there, and I'm gonna grab your little kid and 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:06.520 take it, take them. 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.040 With me, right this It creates basically suction, just like 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.400 when you open a drain in a bathtub and it 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.160 starts to drain, it drains pretty quick. 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.120 Yeah, it's dangerous, like that's how you drown when you're 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:18.960 swimming in the ocean. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:19.280 Right. 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.840 You hear about strong rip currents and inclement weather, and 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.440 it's no joke. Even really good swimmers can get caught 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.680 in a rip. Oh yeah, And it's bad news. 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.720 Riptide, very bad news. Yeah. And then there's some other 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.600 currents that are created that don't just occur at the 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.720 at the shore, but they do. They occur in the 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.360 ocean and at the shore. Yeah, there's this thing called upwelling. Yeah, 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.680 like this stuff and upwelling can happen in a few 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.120 different ways, but as far as the coast is concerned, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.720 when wind comes in and it basically blows water away 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.720 from an area, yeah, like from the shore, right, water 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.240 likes to try to even itself out. So it's some 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.920 water's blown away from the surface, the stuff that's below it, 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.120 the deeper water will come up and basically replace it. Yeah, 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:10.040 and that's upwelling. 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:10.320 Yeah. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.200 It's another like what strikes me when you look at 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.800 wind and all these currents, everything is circular almost. 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.040 Right, so a lot of spinning going on. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:23.280 Yeah, there's a really distinct relationship between wind and water. 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.840 It's inseparable, especially when you're talking about global winds and 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.200 currents together, right, Yeah, but both of them are broken 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.640 down to fluid dynamics, and they do form these circles 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.600 and cycles and clockwise motions and counterclockwise motions depending on 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:38.679 where you are in the world. 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:40.960 Yeah, And in the case of upwelling and down welling, 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.520 it's not a horizontal spin, but it is a vertical 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.240 from top to bottom and then from bottom back up 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:48.680 to the top. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.360 Yeah, and you want to talk about that was which one. 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.520 Well both, it's the same pattern from top to bottom 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.520 and bottom to top with upwelling and down welling. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.400 Right. And the whole thing about upwelling and down welling, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.880 whether it's at the shore or in the ocean, is 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.679 that the ocean is kind of It's not like if 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.920 you take a slice of ocean at the top and 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.040 you take a slice of ocean at the bottom, very 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.400 different and you look at them, yeah, under a microscope 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.040 or test them for whatever, you know, using some sort 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:25.000 of spectroscope, maybe some sort of oscillate or glavin or 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.719 something like that, or just look at it. Yeah, you're 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.880 going to find that there's it's like two different types 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.240 of water, even though it's from the same part. It's 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.320 from the same section of ocean, right, Yeah, And the 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.040 stuff at the top is going to be very oxygen rich. 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.320 There's going to be a lot of life, vital plant 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.200 and that kind of stuff, but not too many nutrients. 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.480 The stuff at the bottom is going to be lousy 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.480 with CO two yeah, cold, yeah, very cold, and a 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.680 lot of nutrients. Right, And when both of these things 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.839 are needed at different spots. Yeah, So the upwelling and 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.640 the down welling creates this kind of gas exchange, in 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.920 nutrient exchange throughout the ocean, and the oxygen at the 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.199 top when it's deposited down lower. Thanks to down welling, 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.120 all of that oxygen circulates downward through the ocean and 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.680 all the fishies that need oxygen in their gills get 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:16.760 to breathe it in, right. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.720 Yeah, And with upwelling, like I mentioned earlier in Antarctica 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.560 where it's super cold and you would not expect marine 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:26.760 life to do so well, it is because of the 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.160 upwelling that brings the nutrients from the bottom up to 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:30.560 the top. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.240 Yep, and that cycle and that's called life. 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.360 And one other really neat thing about upwelling and downwelling 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.920 is the oxygen that's at the top of the ocean. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:44.000 Were it to just sit there for very long and dissolve, 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:46.720 we would have a very big problem because all of 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:51.440 that life, once it dies, would decay very quickly up top. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:52.640 Yeah that's not good. 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.920 No, it wouldn't because anaerobic bacteria would begin to thrive 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.640 and we'd have a overabundance of hydrogen sulfide, which would 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.520 lead to ocean acidification, which would mean the end of 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:03.480 the world basically. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.280 Yeah, So that nutrient swap is very important for everybody 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:07.840 on the planet. 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.960 Yep. And there's this elegant solution to the oceans that 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.640 happens every day everywhere in the ocean thanks to upwelling 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:15.400 and downwelling. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.000 All right, well it's a good start, my friend. My 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.400 eyes are not glazed over. Actually good, they're sharp, full 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.040 of life. We will talk after this break about some 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:49.320 more surface currents. All right, Josh, there's more than one 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.360 kind of surface current. We covered the I kind of 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.560 like that first part, but there's also surface ocean currents. 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:56.080 Yeah. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:16:00.840 And again the wind is the big contribute to how 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:05.400 these babies form, and specifically, I guess we should talk 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.080 about the Coriolis effect. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.920 Yeah, this is a this is a game changer, as 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.080 people who read self help books on airplanes would call it. Right. 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.760 So yeah, so again, it all starts with heat, and 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:23.520 all that heat is found in its thickest part at 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:27.040 the equator. And my brain is broken. So at the 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:28.720 equator it's the hottest, right. 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.920 That's right. And it's also also spinning faster at the 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:32.960 equator than at. 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.240 The poles, right it is, Okay, So it's the Earth 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.120 that is Yeah, So at the equator it's hot, it's 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.400 spinning faster because of the spin. Because of the heat. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:48.640 The ocean is actually about eight centimeters high, higher here 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:50.680 than at the rest of the ocean. 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:52.600 Yeah, that's so much higher. 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.480 So there's a right, it's just enough to make water 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.760 flow away from the equator. Now, plus you've got wind 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:03.040 that's whipped up because hot air at the equator starts 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.280 moving northward and cools down and that creates wind. Right, 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.040 So if the Earth didn't rotate, you would still have 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.480 these things, but wind would travel in a straight line 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.199 away from the equator toward the poles, cool down and 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.280 turn around and come back in a straight line. 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:20.680 That's right. But that's not the case. 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.119 No, it isn't because the Earth does rotate and it 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:25.840 produces the Coriolis effect. 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:26.720 Yeah, it's like a curve. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.240 Basically, it curves to the right and the northern hemisphere 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:31.920 and to the left in the southern hemisphere. 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.760 Right, So it makes wind curve, and since wind drives 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.920 surface currents, it makes surface currents curve as well. Right, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.680 that's right. So what's really cool is the ocean has 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.240 its own topography. Oh yeah, it's definitely not flat. Anybody 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:48.520 who's looked at it ice, you could be like, oh, 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.440 it's pretty choppy. But if you could step back even 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:56.880 further and you had the right kind of topographical glasses on, 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.639 maybe yeah, you would see that there's like valleys and 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.919 and mountains, and maybe not mountains, but little tiny hills 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:05.640 and valleys in the ocean. 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:05.960 Yeah. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.440 So, like I said, it has its own topography. And 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.119 this is created by those winds that push on the water. 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.040 And as they're pushing the water up and the Coriolis 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.359 effect is turning it, some water starts to kind of mound. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.520 So in some parts of the ocean you have water 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.520 that forms a mound that's about like three to six 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:25.320 feet tall. 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:30.080 Yeah. It doesn't sound intuitive, No, I don't water mounting 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:30.800 up on itself. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.280 You think of it as flat. Yeah, but there is 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.840 actually water that's mounded up into little hills. Yeah okay. 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.879 And so that means that gravity wants to push this 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.520 water downward, right, But it doesn't just go back down 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.359 the hill, because the Coriolis effect pushes it upward. And 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:55.200 the net outcome is that instead the water just says, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.359 how about it just go around instead? Yeah, you stay 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:00.240 up here on the mound, you stay down here. But 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.400 I am going to just go around. And what it 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:07.000 does is, since a mound is roughly circular, it creates 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.280 a current that goes around these things, around these mounds. 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.080 And there's five major ones in the entire world I 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:14.800 know where you're headed at, and they form what are 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:16.200 called gyres. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.920 That's right, g y r e s and they are 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.720 the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.720 then the Indian Ocean has its very own gyre. Yes, 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.080 there were smaller ones around Antarctica, but those are the 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:30.280 five major gyres. 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:32.960 We talked about the Gulf Stream earlier. 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.840 That is a part of the North Atlantic gyre, and 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.080 it carries forty five hundred times the water of the 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:42.320 entire Mississippi River. 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:43.920 Yeah, the Gulf Stream does. 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.840 Yeah, the Gulf Stream is. 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.040 The hero of all gyres. 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.639 It is it moves. Let me see, I've got to 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.680 find this one because this is so amazing. So the 0:19:55.160 --> 0:20:00.200 Gulf Stream, at any given point, it moves water at 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:06.359 a rate of fifteen superdomes worth per second. So you 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.480 remember the superdome in Louisiana. Yes, sure, say you filled 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.800 it with water, okay, and then you took that but 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.040 copied it fifteen fourteen more times h So you have 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.399 fifteen super domes full of water. That's how much water 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.600