Water Water Everywhere!
Welcome to the Hydrosphere!
What is hydrosphere
Hydrosphere is the liquid water component of the earth it includes oceans, seas, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. the hydrosphere covers about 70% of the earth surface its home to many plants and animals
How does the temperature and salinity of the ocean affect movements in the ocean?
Ocean currents act like a conveyor belt transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water fro the poles back to the tropics. This regulates global climate without the currents the regional temperatures would be more extreme.
Salinity, along with temperature, determines the density of seawater, and hence its
vertical flow patterns in thermohaline circulation.
Thermohaline is part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes.
In the Earth's polar regions ocean water gets very cold, forming sea ice. As a consequence the surrounding seawater gets saltier, because when sea ice forms, the salt is left behind. As the seawater gets saltier, its density increases, and it starts to sink. Surface water is pulled in to replace the sinking water, which in turn eventually becomes cold and salty enough to sink. This initiates the deep-ocean currents driving the global conveyor belt
The Gulf Stream & Climate Change
How are we able to study the hydrospheree?
the way that the hydrosphere is by using instruments that measure the characteristics of the water they also use submersible vehicles that can study the underwater process and satellites that gather information of the oceans surface.