Ocean Currents
Name: _________________________________________
Period: _______ Date: _________________________
The ocean current that Squirt and Nemo ride is known as the EAC. The East Australian
Current (EAC) is an ocean current that moves warm water from the tropical Coral Sea, where it
splits from the South Equatorial Current, down the east coast of Australia. It is the largest
ocean current close to the shores of Australia. It can reach speeds of up to 8 miles per hour in
some of the shallower waters along the Australian continental shelf. In this lesson, you will
learn about the various ocean currents and how they are formed.
1. In the video, the EAC did not travel in a straight path. What factors do you think
contribute to the path of the EAC? Think about the properties of water!
Review
1. Briefly describe how global winds travel on Earth’s surface.
2. The coriolis effect is cause by the Earth’s _________________.
Surface Currents Map
1. Look at the map of major ocean currents (p. 419) and write a prediction describing the climate you
would expect of each place listed below.
• Arica, Chile (along the Peru Current) _______________________________________________
• Trondhiem, Norway (along the Norwegian Current) _____________________________________
• Tokyo, Japan along the (Kuroshio Current) ___________________________________________
2. Using the climate data from Fact Sheet A, create a climograph for each city listed. Use a line graph
for temperature and a bar graph for precipitation on the same graph.
3. Examine your climographs. What is the difference between the highest and lowest temperatures in
the climograph for each city?
Arica, Chile (along the Peru Current) _______________________________________________
Trondhiem, Norway (along the Norwegian Current) _____________________________________
Tokyo, Japan along the (Kuroshio Current) ___________________________________________
4. Which city is in a desert? How can you tell?
5. Take a closer look at the Arica, Chile climograph. What can you tell about the seasons and the
months? How is this related to the hemisphere where Arica is located?
6. Is there a relationship between the temperature of the ocean current and the coastal climate?
Explain.
7. Is there a relationship between the direction of the ocean current and the coastal climate? Explain.
8. In general, on which side of the ocean basins are the cold currents? Warm currents?
9. What can you infer about the climate of each region by reviewing these climographs?