- Currents are coherent streams of water moving through the ocean and include both long, permanent features such as the Gulf Stream, as well as smaller, episodic flows in both coastal waters and the open ocean. They are formed primarily by wind blowing across the surface of the ocean and by differences in the temperature, density and pressure of water and are steered by Earth's rotation as well as the location of the continents and topography of the ocean bottom.
- Gyres are spiraling circulations thousands of miles in diameter and rimmed by large, permanent ocean currents.
- Eddies are smaller, temporary loops of swirling water that can travel long distances before dissipating.
- There are only 5 gyres in the world, 1 in the Pacific Ocean, 1 in the Indiana Ocean, and 2 in the Atlantic ocean
- It takes a gyre to rotate for about 100- 1,000 years
- Currents are caused by gravity, density, and wind
- There are two types of density layers in the ocean: Surface Currents-- Surface Circulation and Deep Water Currents--Thermohaline Circulation
- Surface currents are driven by gravity
- The Coriolis effect makes currents go off course so that's why it goes around so many places
- The Gulf stream current
- The Gulf Stream is a strong, fast moving, warm ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It makes up a portion of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre.
- The majority of the Gulf Stream is known as a western boundary current. This means that it is a current with behavior determined by the presence of a coastline - in this case the eastern United States and Canada - and is found on the western edge of an oceanic basin. Western boundary currents are normally very warm, deep, and narrow currents that carry water from the tropics to the poles.
- Currents are affected also by the shape of the ocean floor