Learn about Ocean Currents

We hear about strange things from distant places being washed up on our shores all the time. But how do they get there? Oceans currents are the movements of surface water in the oceans. Their direction is influenced by many factors including the rotation of the earth, the size and shapes of the continents, the prevailing winds and even water density. Oceans currents caused by prevailing winds are called drift currents. In the Northern hemisphere, the circulation of the oceans is clockwise and in the southern hemisphere, the currents are anti-clockwise. Currents originating from the Polar Regions carry cold water. There’s the California current, the Peru or Humboldt Current, the Labrador, Canaries, Anguilla, the Antarctic Circumpolar currents, and the Oyashio. Currents originating from the equatorial regions carry warm water. There’s the Gulf Stream in North Atlantic drift, the Brazil current, the North and South equatorial currents, and the Kuroshio. So perhaps it’s not so surprising that many of the items that are washed ashore originate in far off places thousands of miles away.