Oceans 11
Name:_________________________
Date:__________________________
Bill Nye – Oceanography answers
1. Wind and salt water keeps the ocean water moving.
2. Sun makes ocean water evaporate, the salt stays behind. Salt water is heavier and
it pushes the not so salty water out of the way. We get currents. Oceans currents
move water all over the world
3. The famous gulf stream has so much heat it makes places like Iceland, Norway,
and Britain from getting to cold in the winter.An ocean current is a river of water,
flowing through water.
4. Currents set up by warm and salty water sinking and rising in the ocean are called
thermohaline currents. Thermo = heat salt = haline. Thermohaline make huge
masses of seawater flow in huge currents all over the world.
5. Drift marker buoys drift with the ocean currents and send out a radio signal we
can see where the ocean currents are flowing.
6. Fish depend on moving water for food and oxygen.
7. Rivers and lakes receive minerals from the land during erosion. The minerals in
rivers and lakes are constantly being rinsed out as they flow downhill to the
nearest ocean. The two exceptions to this are the Great Salt Lake in the U.S
Dead Sea in the Middle East, they have no outlet to the ocean.
8. The sun rays are the strongest at the EQUATOR The water particles there move
faster and farther apart, therefore they don’t weigh as much. Cold water comes up
and pushes the water out of the way towards the North and South poles. Insert
arrows on the globe A below to indicate the movement of the water.
A
B
C
9. The Earth is constantly spinning and that pushes the water towards the WEST
Insert arrows on the globe B above to indicate the movement of the water.
10. Therefore in the northern hemisphere the water moves in a CLOCKWISE
direction and in the Southern hemisphere the water moves in a
COUNTERCLOCKWISE direction. Insert arrows on the globe C below to
indicate the movement of the water in the northern and southern hemispheres.
11. Being at sea level means your at the same height or level as the sea. Mountains
are above sea level.
12. Only the Earth has currents only the earth has living things Living things depend
on currents.