Ocean waters are constantly under movement. But have you thought about the forces or reasons behind their movement? Do you know how they move? An ocean current is basically defined as a horizontal movement of seawater in the ocean. Some of the factors affecting the movement of ocean currents are the rotation of planet, temperature, wind and the gravitational pull of the moon.

Why do Ocean Currents flow?
Although there might be various reasons for the existence or flow of ocean currents but the major ones are: the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. The Sun affects the ocean by heating the atmosphere, creating winds and moving the sea surface through friction. This tends to drag the water surface along as the wind blows over it. Secondly, it affects the ocean by altering the density of the ocean surface directly by changing its temperature and/or its salinity.

The rotation of the earth also tends to affect the currents through the Coriolis force. This force makes water to move to the right in Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. It exists because the ocean water is affected by friction with the Earth only at the seafloor, and because the eastward linear velocity of the earth decreases from a maximum at the equator to zero at the poles (but the rotational velocity does not change).

The ocean currents carry immense amount of energy and this is directly related to the density of water. Many Asian, European and North American countries are currently conducting studies and research to make use of the energy from ocean currents.

It is essential to have knowledge of the ocean currents for reducing the costs of shipping such as fuel costs. The knowledge was even more essential in the sail-ship era. A very good citation of this is the Agulhas current, which long prevented Portuguese sailors from reaching India. Ocean currents are also quite important in the study of marine debris and vice-versa.

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