Name:_______________________________________________ Date:_________________ Period: _________________
Inquiry 7.1 – Investigating the Effect of Temperature on Ocean Currents
Examine the clamp lamp and globe displayed by your teacher. Where do you think it will heat up the most?
Prediction:
Location
Equator, 0 o – 30 o Latitude
Middle Latitudes, 30 o - 60 o Latitude
Poles, 60 o - 90 o Latitude
Starting Temperature Temperature at 10 Minutes
Review Figure 7.1 on page 82 of your textbook:
1. Look closely at the equator and the poles. How are they alike?
They both are covered in land and water, they both receive light from the sun.
2. How are they different?
The equator receives more direct light, the poles are covered in snow and ice, the area at the poles is smaller.
3. How do you think these factors affect the temperature of air and water at the equator? How do you think they affect the temperature at the poles?
The sunlight reaches the poles at more of an angle, the sunlight has to travel through more atmosphere and much of the sunlight would be reflected by the snow and ice, for all these reasons the poles heat up much more slowly than
the equator.
4. You know what causes convection currents in the air. What do you think causes currents in the ocean?
Different temperature waters, different salinity waters (different density).
5. How do you think ocean currents affect global weather?
They carry heat from the equators toward the poles and carry cold air from the poles toward the equator, regulating the temperatures around the globe. They also carry moisture.
Read “Ocean Currents” on page 84 of your textbook:
1. What is a current?
A stream of moving water.
2. Why do currents Form?
Because of heat from the sun, wind, salinity, land masses acting as barriers and the rotation of the Earth.
3. Why do you think the warm water in the North Atlantic Ocean moved in a northeasterly direction?
Because the water was warmer than the water around it, it floated over the rest of the water like a river in the ocean,
the warm waters move north towards the colder waters and east because of the rotation of the earth.

4. What might have caused the sharp boundary between the warm water and cold water?
Differences in density.
Read “How Trade Winds Cause Upwelling?” on page 87 of your textbook:
1. What do trade winds do to warm water?
They push warmer water to the west, where it accumulates around Indonesia.
2. What happens to deep cold water after the trade winds move the warm water?
Cold water rises along North and South America and brings rich nutrients with it.
Read “El Nino Stirs up the World’s Weather” on pages 92-95 of your textbook:
1. How often do trade winds weaken?
Every 3-7 years.
2. What happens to the Pacific Ocean water when trade winds weaken?
The Pacific Ocean becomes very warm and cold water stays trapped below it. Fish near the surface cannot live in the
warm (less nutrients, less oxygen) water.
3. What is the phenomenon called? El Nino
4. What are some effects of El Nino? Decline in fish populations, rains, flooding, droughts.
5. Look at the map on page 95. What effects does El Nino have on our area?
Waters are warmer than usual along the West Coast of the U.S.
6. What are the effects of La Nina?
Colder waters, increase in fish populations in South America, a severe wet winter on the west coast of the U.S. and
dry weather in the southwest, more hurricanes.