THE sea has delivered a belated Christmas present to North East researchers investigating
ocean currents.
The event also inspired the premise of the 2004 disaster film, 'The Day After Tomorrow," which exaggerates the speed and strength of the cooling by depicting the planet entering an ice age in a matter of weeks after the
ocean current collapses.
In this limit, we find that the 2% relationship is not applicable and that icebergs instead move with the
ocean current, unaffected by the wind.
Within this framework, the unique "underwater floating type
ocean current turbine system" developed by IHI and Toshiba will demonstrate power generation in a real ocean environment, in a project expected to continue until fiscal year 2017.
Combined, all these measurements will provide additional information to scientists on how accurately each drifter design is measuring the currents, which will then be implemented to improve
ocean current models.
The crew has said they were reluctant to evacuate the passengers because they feared they would not survive the cold waters and strong
ocean current. They also say the ship was listing heavily, making it hard to free lifeboats.
Measuring
Ocean Currents: Tools, Technologies, and Data
Winds, Earth's rotation, and the shape of the ocean floor determine the paths
ocean currents take.
The Louisiana governor's comments came as experts confirmed that a "small portion" of light sheen from the oil slick has already entered a strong
ocean current that could sweep the slick towards Florida and Cuba and possibly up the US east coast.
But worries were growing that the slick could soon reach a major
ocean current which could carry it up the east coast of the US.
A deep
ocean current with a volume equivalent to 40 Amazon Rivers has been discovered by Japanese and Australian scientists in the Southern Ocean, 4200 km south-west of Perth.