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Ocean Water And:
No part of the ocean is completely still, although, in the ocean depths, the movement of water is often extremely slow. Exploration of the deeper parts of the oceans has revealed the existence of marine life. If the water were not in motion, the oxygen - upon which life depends - would soon be used up and not replaced. Life would therefore be impossible. The discovery that all ocean water moves is of great significance.One of the most important effects of ocean currents is that they mix ocean water and so affect directly the fertility of the sea. Mixing is especially important when sub-surface water is mixed with surface water. The upwelling [1] of sub-surface water may be caused by strong coastal winds that push the surface water outwards, allowing sub-surface water to rise up. Such upwelling occurs off the coasts of Peru, California and Mauritania. Sub-surface water rich in nutrients (notably phosphorus and silicon) rises to the surface, stimulating the growth of plankton which provides food for great shoals of fish, such as Peruvian anchovies.
The ocean itself is a vast heat engine, collecting and dispersing its energy at its surface in a complex manner that involves a vertical as well as a surface circulation. In vertical circulation, cold water sinks in the Arctic and Antarctic regions because of its high density. At great depths, the polar water follows the contours of the western margins of the ocean basins in moving to the equatorial regions. In general, the earth's rotation causes the polar water to move in narrow jets, but because these jets "leak" continuously, polar water soon finds its way into the central and eastern parts of the ocean basins, and eventually rises to the surface.
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