What causes the directions of the ocean currents?
Visitors from another world would see our earth as a very watery planet. For almost 7l% of it is covered by seas linked together in a world wide ocean. And all these mighty waters are mixed and merged in a constant turmoil of ocean currents and tossing tides.. Swift surface currents sweep around all the major oceans, circling clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise south of the equator. And deeper currents inch in other directions along the ocean floors. These upstairs and downstairs currents form a global picture. Its basic pattern is caused and directed by the sun and our . Spinning globe. These forces act together on the 330 million cubic miles of fluid water in the world oceans. The bulging equator gets the most solar heat from the direct rays of the overhead sun. Its warm ocean water expands, and sea level rises higher than elsewhere. Its sea surface tends to flow downhill toward the poles. The chilly polar waters tend to condense and sink and flow in deep sea cu
