Question

What role does heat energy from the Sun play in influencing ocean currents?

Answer 1

The correct answer is - D) The warm water at the Equator moves toward the poles and the cooler water from the poles moves toward the Equator.

The Sun is the factor that is the most determining of how the ocean currents will move across the globe. The reason for that is that the Sun is the one that heats up the waters. The waters at the lower latitudes get much more heat, thus they become warm, while the waters close to the poles are cold because they receive much less heat because the Sun rays fall at a much lower angle, thus they are more dispersed.

The warm water and the cold water have different densities, and that causes them to move. The warm water is less dense, so it moves on the surface and goes from the lower latitudes to the higher latitudes, while the colder warm is denser, so it moves from the higher latitudes toward the lower latitudes as a deep ocean current.