Winds and Currents Webquest

Name _______________

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/educate/educate.shtml

1. Does water temperature differ between near-shore and offshore sites?

2. How are ocean waves described?

3. What causes ocean surface waves?

4. What are tides?

5. Are wind speeds the same over land as they are over the ocean?

6. What are sea breezes?

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_currents_1.html

7. Why are inland climates subject to more extreme temperature ranges than coastal
climates?

8. Why do surface currents move a lot of heat?

9. Currents that originate near the equator are ; currents that flow from
the poles are .

http://www.mos.org/oceans/motion/currents.html

10. What do you call the circular patterns in which the world’s oceans travel?

11. What body of water can these patterns be compared to?

12. What else causes currents to flow?

13. Do all currents have the same characteristics?

14. What makes them different?

15. Besides cold water, what does the Humboldt Current normally bring to the surface?
http://www.secretsatsea.org/story/3a.h
tml

16. What are currents responsible for?

17. Major ocean currents maintain their paths like

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/what-is-el-nino

18. What is El Nino characterized by?

19.What is La Nino characterized by?

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/impacts-of-el-nino

20.What are some global consequences of El Nino?

21.What are some regional consequences of El Nino?

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/eln/upw.rxml

22.What is upwelling?

23.Label the below diagram.

24.Nutrient-rich water from deeper levels to the surface water

that has drifted away and these are responsible for
the commonly found in these areas of upwelling.
25.What is the mixed layer?

26.What is the thermocline?

27.The layer and the water layer are relatively

in temperature, while the thermocline represents the zone between
the two.

28. A deeper thermocline (often observed during years) limits the amount of
 brought to depths by upwelling processes, greatly
impacting the year's .

For this part of your webquest, you will need to FIND these answers using the web. Don’t
forget to write down the WEBSITE you used (not Google…just use that as a search
engine).

Website:

32.What does the “global conveyor belt” transport?

Website:

33.List 3 areas of upwelling in the world.

Website:

34.List 3 ways that currents can affect climate in the world.

Website:

35.What current travels down from the north, along the east coast of the US, eventually
sinking to deeper waters?

Website:

36.What is the difference between El Nino and La Nino?

Website:

37. Explain why areas of upwelling are so important to fisheries. What do the currents bring
up with them? Why is this a good thing?