Gravity pulls the water away from hills and toward valleys and Earth’s rotation steers the moving water. The Sun’s radiation creates prevailing wind patterns, which push ocean water to bunch in hills and valleys. (John James Wild, 1877)Īt the surface, currents are mainly driven by four factors-wind, the Sun’s radiation, gravity, and Earth’s rotation. This is a map ocean surface currents from 1877. Climate change is altering the processes that propel water across the globe, and should this alter ocean currents, it would likely lead to a cascade of even more change. While the ocean as we know it has been in existence since the beginning of humanity, the familiar currents that help stabilize our climate may now be threatened. This planetary movement has a strong effect on how oceans move. Though it appears we live on a stable and stationary planet, we are, in fact, whipping through space around the Sun in an orbit and spinning on an axis. It also requires a shift in perspective to encompass the movement of planets, the Moon, and the Sun. Ocean motion is influenced by occurrences here on Earth that are familiar, like heat changes and wind. Friction, drag, and density all come into play when describing the nature of a wave, the movement of a current, or the ebb of a tide. Ocean movement is created by the governing principles of physics and chemistry. Water is propelled around the globe in sweeping currents, waves transfer energy across entire ocean basins, and tides reliably flood and ebb every single day. But this is far from the truth-the ocean is constantly in motion. Looking toward the sea from land, it may appear that the ocean is a stagnant place.

Pictures of ocean waves with sun