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Waves in the oceans can travel thousands of kilometers before reaching land. Wind waves on Earth range in size from small ripples to waves over 30 m (100 ft) high, being limited by wind speed, duration, fetch, and water depth. [1] When directly generated and affected by local wind, a wind wave system is called a wind sea.
Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
Under ordinary circumstances, the western Pacific waters are warm, and the eastern waters are cool. The process begins when strong convective activity over equatorial East Asia and subsiding cool air off South America's west coast create a wind pattern which pushes Pacific water westward and piles it up in the western Pacific. (Water levels in ...
Rain falling over a drainage basin in Scotland.Understanding the cycling of water into, through, and out of catchments is a key element of hydrology. Hydrology (from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) 'water' and -λογία () 'study of') is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and ...
Wind shear, sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the Earth's atmosphere. [61] Wind shear can be broken down into vertical and horizontal components, with horizontal wind shear seen across weather fronts and near the coast, [62] and vertical shear typically near ...
In all, the atmosphere is made up of about 78.0% nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, and 0.92% argon, and small amounts of other gases including CO 2 and water vapor. [15] Water vapor and CO 2 cause the Earth's atmosphere to catch and hold the Sun's energy through the greenhouse effect. [16] This makes Earth's surface warm enough for liquid water and life.
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. [1]
The water cycle describes the processes that drive the movement of water throughout the hydrosphere. However, much more water is "in storage" (or in "pools") for long periods of time than is actually moving through the cycle. The storehouses for the vast majority of all water on Earth are the oceans.