13.8 Deep Currents

How are ocean currents like a conveyor belt?

Seawater doesn't just circulate around the surface, it moves through the deep sea. Just like at the surface, normal circulation patterns transport much of the water. Seawater is moved as if on a conveyor through the surface and deep ocean, a trip that takes hundreds of years.

Deep Currents

Thermohaline circulation drives deep ocean circulation. Thermo means heat and haline refers to salinity. Differences in temperature and in salinity change the density of seawater. So thermohaline circulation is the result of density differences in water masses because of their different temperature and salinity.

What is the temperature and salinity of very dense water? Lower temperature and higher salinity yield the densest water. When a volume of water is cooled, the molecules move less vigorously, so same number of molecules takes up less space and the water is denser. If salt is added to a volume of water, there are more molecules in the same volume, so the water is denser.

Downwelling

Changes in temperature and salinity of seawater take place at the surface. Water becomes dense near the poles. Cold polar air cools the water and lowers its temperature, increasing its salinity. Fresh water freezes out of seawater to become sea ice, which also increases the salinity of the remaining water. This very cold, very saline water is very dense and sinks. This sinking is called downwelling.

This video lecture discusses the vertical distribution of life in the oceans. Seawater density creates currents, which provide different habitats for different creatures: 

Two things then happen. The dense water pushes deeper water out of its way and that water moves along the bottom of the ocean. This deep water mixes with less dense water as it flows. Surface currents move water into the space vacated at the surface where the dense water sank (Figure below). Water also sinks into the deep ocean off of Antarctica.

Upwelling

Since unlimited amounts of water cannot sink to the bottom of the ocean, water must rise from the deep ocean to the surface somewhere. This process is called upwelling (Figure below).

Generally, upwelling occurs along the coast when wind blows water strongly away from the shore. This leaves a void that is filled by deep water that rises to the surface.

Upwelling is extremely important where it occurs. During its time on the bottom, the cold deep water has collected nutrients that have fallen down through the water column. Upwelling brings those nutrients to the surface. Those nutrients support the growth of plankton and form the base of a rich ecosystem. California, South America, South Africa, and the Arabian Sea all benefit from offshore upwelling.

Upwelling also takes place along the Equator between the North and South Equatorial Currents. Winds blow the surface water north and south of the Equator, so deep water undergoes upwelling. The nutrients rise to the surface and support a great deal of life in the equatorial oceans.

Summary

• Cooling or evaporation of fresh water from the sea surface makes surface water dense and causes it to sink.
• Downwelling of cold, dense water drives thermohaline circulation.
• Upwelling takes place at some coastlines or along the Equator and brings cool, nutrient-rich water to the surface.

Review

1. Why is upwelling important?
2. How does downwelling drive thermohaline circulation?
3. What would happen if water in the north Pacific no longer became cold and dense enough to sink?

Explore More

Use this resource (watch up to 6:45) to answer the questions that follow.

1. When ice forms from seawater what is the composition of the ice? How does that change the composition of seawater nearby?
2. What are the characteristics of the seawater that is left behind? What happens to it as a result of these characteristics?
3. What do the Antarctic Bottom Water and the North Atlantic Deep Water contain and why? Why does cold water trap more gas?
4. Why are the cold polar regions so rich in life?