Gyre - Polarpedia

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A gyre is a ringlike system of ocean currents. It’s a circular rotation of water, driven by wind and formed by Coriolis force; a major system of surface ocean currents.

There are 5 gyres around the globe:

• the North Atlantic Gyre,
• the South Atlantic Gyre,
• the North Pacific Gyre,
• the South Pacific  Gyre
• the Indian Ocean Gyre.

The direction on rotation depends on hemisphere (clockwise in Northern hemisphere, counterclockwise in southern hemisphere). Gyres have a tendency to draw the pollution released in coastal areas to the ocean. As a result, so called Garbage Patches are formed – mostly made up of the microbeads and plastic fibers.

Map of ocean currents and gyres. deBlij H.J., Muller P.O. 1976 Physical geography of the global environment.

Categories: All Articles, Water resources Most popular terms: Abiotic environment, Gyre, Benthic algae, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Catchment, Gulf Stream, Subarctic, Floating method, Benthic fish and animals Related resources:

• Go with the flow – online GAME
• EDU-ARCTIC webinar: Dance of water: ocean currents

« Previous term: Gumpi Next term: Gyrfalcon » Polarpedia has information categorized by main topics. Click on an icon below to view the available terms.

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Polarpedia terms are created by EDU-ARCTIC Consortium, which holds responsibility for quality of translations in following languages: Polish, French, Danish, Norwegian, German, Russian, Italian, unless indicated otherwise. If you see an error - please contact us: [email protected].

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