Are the major ocean currents the ones that are closer to the surface?
Very good question, Jude! Fluids and gases are affected by the Coriolis force that is the result of the earth spinning on itself. It works only for very large systems moving slowly. That the water drains from your sink in one or the other way is an urban legend; it doesn’t at that scale. But air masses and oceanic water does. In the northern hemisphere, for example, the Coriolis force makes moving water and air to turn to the right. For example, in the northern Atlantic, the air moves in a general direction that is clockwise around a center that is the Azores islands. At its north; the prevailing westerlies and at its south, the Trade winds. With time, that has also moved the surface water of the ocean in a similar pattern. But water is more complex; it reacts to salinity and temperature. Salty water sinks and so does cold water. In fact, water is heaviest at 4 degrees Celsius and that is the temperature at the bottom of all oceans. That complex system results in what is known as the t
