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49-770: Baffin Island Current (or Baffin Current ) is an ocean current running south down the western side of Baffin Bay in the Arctic Ocean , along Baffin Island . Its sources are the West Greenland Current and outflow from the Arctic Ocean . Its speed is approximately 17 km (11 mi) per day. 64°43′26″N 62°37′44″W  /  64.724°N 62.629°W  / 64.724; -62.629 This Greenland location article

98-573: A Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.946, the tenth-highest in the world as of the 2024 report. New Zealand is also well developed, with a nominal GDP per capita of US$ 48,072 and an HDI of 0.939, putting it at number 16 in the world in 2024. The least developed nations in the Southern Hemisphere cluster in Africa and Oceania, with Mozambique and Burundi at the lowest ends of the HDI, at 0.461 (number 183 in

147-399: A decisive role in influencing the climates of regions through which they flow. Ocean currents are important in the study of marine debris . Upwellings and cold ocean water currents flowing from polar and sub-polar regions bring in nutrients that support plankton growth, which are crucial prey items for several key species in marine ecosystems . Ocean currents are also important in

196-562: A much colder northern Europe and greater sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast." In addition to water surface temperatures, the wind systems are a crucial determinant of ocean currents. Wind wave systems influence oceanic heat exchange, the condition of the sea surface, and can alter ocean currents. In the North Atlantic, equatorial Pacific, and Southern Ocean, increased wind speeds as well as significant wave heights have been attributed to climate change and natural processes combined. In

245-453: A result, influence the biological composition of oceans. Due to the patchiness of the natural ecological world, dispersal is a species survival mechanism for various organisms. With strengthened boundary currents moving toward the poles, it is expected that some marine species will be redirected to the poles and greater depths. The strengthening or weakening of typical dispersal pathways by increased temperatures are expected to not only impact

294-418: A significant role in influencing climate, and shifts in climate in turn impact ocean currents. Over the last century, reconstructed sea surface temperature data reveal that western boundary currents are heating at double the rate of the global average. These observations indicate that the western boundary currents are likely intensifying due to this change in temperature, and may continue to grow stronger in

343-405: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a specific ocean current is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ocean current Ocean currents flow for great distances and together they create the global conveyor belt , which plays a dominant role in determining the climate of many of Earth's regions. More specifically, ocean currents influence

392-425: Is also known as the ocean's conveyor belt. Where significant vertical movement of ocean currents is observed, this is known as upwelling and downwelling . The adjective thermohaline derives from thermo- referring to temperature and -haline referring to salt content , factors which together determine the density of seawater. The thermohaline circulation is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that

441-524: Is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes . Wind -driven surface currents (such as the Gulf Stream ) travel polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean , cooling en route, and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water ). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins . While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean ,

490-667: Is located in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is deemed by the International Hydrographic Organization as being wholly within the South Pacific Ocean, rather than the North Pacific. More than 850 million people live in the Southern Hemisphere, representing around 10–12% of the total global human population. Of those 850 million people, more than 203 million live in Brazil , the largest country by land area in

539-479: Is mostly concentrated on/around the islands of Bali , Mauritius , and Fiji . The oldest continuously inhabited city in the Southern Hemisphere is Bogor , in western Java , which was founded in 669 . Ancient texts from the Hindu kingdoms prevalent in the area definitively record 669 CE as the year when Bogor was founded. However, some evidence shows that Zanzibar , an ancient port with around 200,000 inhabitants off

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588-623: Is now also planted in Southern Africa and Latin America for pulp production, and increasingly, biofuel uses. One of the most notable animals to be found almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere is the penguin . A species is found around Isabela Island on the Galápagos archipelago in the Pacific Ocean , which straddles the equator. However, most of Isabela and the rest of the archipelago

637-742: The Age of Discovery , the Southern Hemisphere was largely cut off from the cultural constructs of the Western and Eastern worlds . Some view both the West and the East as being Northern Hemisphere-centric concepts. The most widespread religions in the modern Southern Hemisphere are Christianity , prevalent in South America, Africa, Oceania, and East Timor , followed by Islam in East Africa and Indonesia , and Hinduism , which

686-477: The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is in danger of collapsing due to climate change, which would have extreme impacts on the climate of northern Europe and more widely, although this topic is controversial and remains an active area of research. The "State of the cryosphere" report, dedicates significant space to AMOC, saying it may be enroute to collapse because of ice melt and water warming. In

735-496: The East Australian Current , global warming has also been accredited to increased wind stress curl , which intensifies these currents, and may even indirectly increase sea levels, due to the additional warming created by stronger currents. As ocean circulation changes due to climate, typical distribution patterns are also changing. The dispersal patterns of marine organisms depend on oceanographic conditions, which as

784-475: The Norte Chico civilization and Casma–Sechin culture from the northern coast of Peru. These civilizations built cities, pyramids, and plazas in the coastal river valleys of northern Peru with some ruins dating back to 3600 BCE . Easter Island , located about 3,500 kilometres from Chile and French Polynesia , is considered to be the most remote place on Earth to have been permanently inhabited by humans before

833-615: The Northern Hemisphere , and it contains 32.7% of Earth's land. Owing to the tilt of Earth's rotation relative to the Sun and the ecliptic plane , summer is from December to February (inclusive) and winter is from June to August (inclusive). September 22 or 23 is the vernal equinox and March 20 or 21 is the autumnal equinox. The South Pole is in the centre of the southern hemispherical region. Southern Hemisphere climates tend to be slightly milder than those at similar latitudes in

882-554: The Northern Hemisphere , except in the Antarctic which is colder than the Arctic . This is because the Southern Hemisphere has significantly more ocean and much less land; water heats up and cools down more slowly than land. The differences are also attributed to oceanic heat transfer and differing extents of greenhouse trapping. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun passes from east to west through

931-702: The anticlockwise direction. During solar eclipses viewed from a point to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the Moon moves from left to right on the disc of the Sun (see, for example, photos with timings of the solar eclipse of November 13, 2012 ), while viewed from a point to the north of the Tropic of Cancer (i.e., in the Northern Hemisphere), the Moon moves from right to left during solar eclipses. The Coriolis effect causes cyclones and tropical storms to spin clockwise in

980-533: The southern hemisphere . In addition, the areas of surface ocean currents move somewhat with the seasons ; this is most notable in equatorial currents. Deep ocean basins generally have a non-symmetric surface current, in that the eastern equator-ward flowing branch is broad and diffuse whereas the pole-ward flowing western boundary current is relatively narrow. Large scale currents are driven by gradients in water density , which in turn depend on variations in temperature and salinity. This thermohaline circulation

1029-799: The Age of Discovery. It was settled by a Polynesian group known as the Rapa Nui . Areas of the Southern Hemisphere that had no contact with humans before the Age of Discovery include Christmas Island and Mauritius (in the Indian Ocean ), the Galápagos Islands , Juan Fernández Islands and Lord Howe Island (in the South Pacific), the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha (in the South Atlantic ) and

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1078-408: The Southern Hemisphere include Bali , Buenos Aires , Cape Town , Easter Island , Lima , Rio de Janeiro , Sydney and Tahiti . According to a 2017 report, the most popular Southern Hemisphere " bucket list " destinations among Australians were Antarctica , New Zealand , the Galápagos Islands , South Africa and Peru . Quito, Ecuador is the closest major city to the equatorial line on

1127-745: The Southern Hemisphere include São Paulo , where the B3 (stock exchange) is headquartered, along with Sydney, home to the Australian Securities Exchange , Jakarta, the seat of the Indonesia Stock Exchange , Johannesburg , home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange , and Buenos Aires, headquarters of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange , the oldest stock market in the Southern Hemisphere. Common tourist destinations in

1176-474: The Southern Hemisphere with brighter and more numerous stars. Forests in the Southern Hemisphere have special features which set them apart from those in the Northern Hemisphere. Both Chile and Australia share, for example, unique beech species or Nothofagus , and New Zealand has members of the closely related genera Lophozonia and Fuscospora . The eucalyptus is native to Australia but

1225-1053: The Southern Hemisphere). Portuguese is the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere, with over 230 million speakers in six countries – mostly in Brazil, but also in Angola , Mozambique , East Timor , and small parts of Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe that lie south of the Equator . Among the largest metropolitan areas in the Southern Hemisphere are Jakarta (34 million people), São Paulo (22 million), Kinshasa-Brazzaville (19 million), Buenos Aires (16 million), Rio de Janeiro (12 million), Johannesburg , Lima (11 million each), Surabaya (10 million), Bandung (9 million), Luanda (8 million), Dar es Salaam , Santiago (7 million each), Belo Horizonte , Semarang (6 million each), Sydney , Melbourne and Cape Town (5 million each). Important financial and commercial centres in

1274-401: The Southern Hemisphere, as opposed to anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. The southern temperate zone , a subsection of the Southern Hemisphere, is nearly all oceanic. The Sagittarius constellation that includes the galactic centre is a southern constellation as well as both Magellanic Clouds . This, combined with clearer skies, makes for excellent viewing of the night sky from

1323-507: The Southern Hemisphere, while more than 150 million live in Java , the most populous island in the world. The most populous country in the Southern Hemisphere is Indonesia , with 275 million people (roughly 30 million of whom live north of the Equator on the northern portions of the islands of Sumatra , Borneo , and Sulawesi , as well as most of North Maluku , while the rest of the population lives in

1372-477: The atmosphere and the deep ocean due to the way water upwells and downwells on either side of it. Ocean currents are patterns of water movement that influence climate zones and weather patterns around the world. They are primarily driven by winds and by seawater density, although many other factors influence them – including the shape and configuration of the ocean basin they flow through. The two basic types of currents – surface and deep-water currents – help define

1421-414: The character and flow of ocean waters across the planet. Ocean currents are driven by the wind, by the gravitational pull of the moon in the form of tides , and by the effects of variations in water density. Ocean dynamics define and describe the motion of water within the oceans. Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above

1470-455: The circulation has a large impact on the climate of the Earth. The thermohaline circulation is sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the great ocean conveyor, or the global conveyor belt. On occasion, it is imprecisely used to refer to the meridional overturning circulation , (MOC). Since the 2000s an international program called Argo has been mapping the temperature and salinity structure of

1519-512: The coast of Tanzania , may be older than Bogor. A Greco-Roman text written between 1 and 100 CE , the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea , mentioned the island of Menuthias ( Ancient Greek : Μενουθιάς) as a trading port on the east African coast, which is probably the small Tanzanian island of Unguja on which Zanzibar is located. The oldest monumental civilizations in the Southern Hemisphere are

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1568-544: The cost and emissions of shipping vessels. Ocean currents can also impact the fishing industry , examples of this include the Tsugaru , Oyashio and Kuroshio currents all of which influence the western North Pacific temperature, which has been shown to be a habitat predictor for the Skipjack tuna . It has also been shown that it is not just local currents that can affect a country's economy, but neighboring currents can influence

1617-564: The dispersal and distribution of many organisms, inclusing those with pelagic egg or larval stages. An example is the life-cycle of the European Eel . Terrestrial species, for example tortoises and lizards, can be carried on floating debris by currents to colonise new terrestrial areas and islands . The continued rise of atmospheric temperatures is anticipated to have various effects on the strength of surface ocean currents, wind-driven circulation and dispersal patterns. Ocean currents play

1666-504: The large scale prevailing winds drive major persistent ocean currents, and seasonal or occasional winds drive currents of similar persistence to the winds that drive them, and the Coriolis effect plays a major role in their development. The Ekman spiral velocity distribution results in the currents flowing at an angle to the driving winds, and they develop typical clockwise spirals in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise rotation in

1715-462: The near future. There is evidence that surface warming due to anthropogenic climate change has accelerated upper ocean currents in 77% of the global ocean. Specifically, increased vertical stratification due to surface warming intensifies upper ocean currents, while changes in horizontal density gradients caused by differential warming across different ocean regions results in the acceleration of surface zonal currents . There are suggestions that

1764-406: The north, although north of the Tropic of Capricorn the mean Sun can be directly overhead or due south at midday. The Sun follows a right-to-left trajectory through the northern sky unlike the left-to-right motion of the Sun when seen from the Northern Hemisphere as it passes through the southern sky. Sun-cast shadows turn anticlockwise throughout the day and sundials have the hours increasing in

1813-515: The ocean with a fleet of automated platforms that float with the ocean currents. The information gathered will help explain the role the oceans play in the earth's climate. Ocean currents affect temperatures throughout the world. For example, the ocean current that brings warm water up the north Atlantic to northwest Europe also cumulatively and slowly blocks ice from forming along the seashores, which would also block ships from entering and exiting inland waterways and seaports, hence ocean currents play

1862-408: The oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1000 years) upwell in the North Pacific. Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth's oceans a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy (in the form of heat) and matter (solids, dissolved substances and gases) around the globe. As such, the state of

1911-476: The planet, and Ushuaia, Argentina claims the title of world's southernmost city. Cape Town, Christchurch , Hobart , Punta Arenas and Ushuaia are officially acknowledged as the five international Antarctic gateway cities that serve as primary entry points for travel to the Antarctic region. Among the most developed nations in the Southern Hemisphere is Australia, with a nominal GDP per capita of US$ 63,487 and

1960-575: The same latitude North America's weather was colder. A good example of this is the Agulhas Current (down along eastern Africa), which long prevented sailors from reaching India. In recent times, around-the-world sailing competitors make good use of surface currents to build and maintain speed. Ocean currents can also be used for marine power generation , with areas of Japan, Florida and Hawaii being considered for test projects. The utilization of currents today can still impact global trade, it can reduce

2009-541: The same latitude. Another example is Lima, Peru , whose cooler subtropical climate contrasts with that of its surrounding tropical latitudes because of the Humboldt Current . The largest ocean current is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), a wind-driven current which flows clockwise uninterrupted around Antarctica. The ACC connects all the ocean basins together, and also provides a link between

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2058-450: The same time, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is also slowing down and is expected to lose 20% of it power by the year 2050, "with widespread impacts on ocean circulation and climate". UNESCO mentions that the report in the first time "notes a growing scientific consensus that melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, among other factors, may be slowing important ocean currents at both poles, with potentially dire consequences for

2107-413: The survival of native marine species due to inability to replenish their meta populations but also may increase the prevalence of invasive species . In Japanese corals and macroalgae, the unusual dispersal pattern of organisms toward the poles may destabilize native species. Knowledge of surface ocean currents is essential in reducing costs of shipping, since traveling with them reduces fuel costs. In

2156-477: The temperature of the regions through which they travel. For example, warm currents traveling along more temperate coasts increase the temperature of the area by warming the sea breezes that blow over them. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream , which, together with its extension the North Atlantic Drift , makes northwest Europe much more temperate for its high latitude than other areas at

2205-518: The thermocline), and deep ocean. Ocean currents are measured in units of sverdrup (Sv) , where 1 Sv is equivalent to a volume flow rate of 1,000,000 m (35,000,000 cu ft) per second. There are two main types of currents, surface currents and deep water currents. Generally surface currents are driven by wind systems and deep water currents are driven by differences in water density due to variations in water temperature and salinity . Surface oceanic currents are driven by wind currents,

2254-766: The viability of local fishing industries. Currents of the Arctic Ocean Currents of the Atlantic Ocean Currents of the Indian Ocean Currents of the Pacific Ocean Currents of the Southern Ocean Oceanic gyres Southern hemisphere The Southern Hemisphere is the half ( hemisphere ) of Earth that is south of the Equator . It contains all or parts of five continents (the whole of Antarctica ,

2303-645: The whole of Australia , about 90% of South America , about one-third of Africa , and some islands off the continental mainland of Asia ) and four oceans (the whole Southern Ocean , the majority of the Indian Ocean , the South Atlantic Ocean , and the South Pacific Ocean ), as well as New Zealand and most of the Pacific Islands in Oceania . Its surface is 80.9% water, compared with 60.7% water in

2352-523: The wind powered sailing-ship era, knowledge of wind patterns and ocean currents was even more essential. Using ocean currents to help their ships into harbor and using currents such as the gulf stream to get back home. The lack of understanding of ocean currents during that time period is hypothesized to be one of the contributing factors to exploration failure. The Gulf Stream and the Canary current keep western European countries warmer and less variable, while at

2401-529: The world) and 0.420 (number 187 in the world), respectively. The nominal GDPs per capita of these two countries do not go above US$ 650, a tiny fraction of the incomes enjoyed by Australians and New Zealanders. The Southern Hemisphere has long been secondary in the global distribution of demographic, economic and political power, as it has less land than the Northern Hemisphere. In recent times, however, countries such as Australia have made greater efforts to economically engage with those from their hemisphere. Before

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