Ocean Currents Name________________________________ Period_____ Part 1. Shipwrecks Reveal Ocean Currents Answer the following questions while watching the video. You may pause, rewind, restart video. 1. The North Atlantic covers how many square miles? 14million sq miles 2. The gulf stream flows around which peninsula? Florida 3. The “graveyard” of the Atlantic is referring to what? Diamond Sholes 4. Many abandoned ships traveled __ aimlessly ___________ carried by ocean currents? 5. These ships were hazards to navigation. What did people do when they spotted them? carefully reported their positions 6. The careful tracking of two ships; the first traveled to Europe taking __ 10 months _____________. 7. The second floated around the North Atlantic gyre for _____ 3 years ______________. 8. Derelict tracking helps clarify the patterns of ___ Surface Currents ______ in the gulf stream gyre. 9. Explain how some sailing ships in the 17th and 18th centuries benefited from the presence of the Gulf Stream and some did not. Benefited by traveling from Americas to Europe using surface currents, others had to take dangerous routes to travel the direction needed. 10. How do you think scientists map ocean currents today? Satellite Technology Ocean Currents Name________________________________ Period_____ 11. How do scientists use information about drifting ships to better understand the speed and direction of the Gulf Stream? They could study the course, speed, and direction of ships to study surface currents. Part 2. How Ocean Currents Work Introduction to How Ocean Currents Work Current refers to the ____ motion __________ of the water. Ocean currents may be driven by ___ tides _______, __ winds _______ or differences in ___ density _______. They profoundly affect the weather, marine transportation and the cycling of nutrients. Knowledge of ocean currents is essential to who? _______ fishing industries, recreational boating and swimming. What are the three main Ocean Current Types (summarize a description of each) 1.______ surface currents ________________________ Summary: ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ Ocean Currents Name________________________________ Period_____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ 2._______ Deep ocean currents ___________________________ Summary: ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ 3.______ Tidal Currents ____________________________ Summary: Ocean Currents Name________________________________ Period_____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ____ Ocean Currents Name________________________________ Period_____ Part 3. What Causes The Gulf Stream Watch the video: What Causes the Gulf Stream and answer the following questions. The spin of the Earth helps create what winds? Prevailing winds What are the two specific winds called? Northeast trades; westerlies The two major winds above create what? surface currents And the answer to the above question helps create what? Gyre Part 4. Summarize your specific Current Where does your current start? end or feed in to? Is it warm or cold? How would humans use the current? The more details, the better!! Labrador Current, surface oceanic current flowing southward along the west side of the Labrador Sea. Originating at the Davis Strait, the Labrador Current is a combination of the West Greenland Current , the Baffin Island Current , and inflow from Hudson Bay. The current is cold and has a low salinity; it maintains temperatures of less than 32° F (0° C) and salinities in the range of 30 to 34 parts per 1,000. The Labrador Current is limited to the continental shelf and reaches depths only slightly greater than 2,000 feet (600 m). Its volume of water transport varies between about 125,000,000 and 190,000,000 cubic feet (3,500,000 and 5,400,000 cubic m) per second and annually carries several thousand icebergs southward.
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