Ocean Conveyor & Upwelling

Ocean Conveyor & Upwelling is a 3D physical oceanography simulation connecting density-driven thermohaline overturning (AMOC) with wind-driven coastal Ekman upwelling. In the polar sinking zone on the left, warm red surface water cools and becomes denser, plunging into the abyss as cold blue North Atlantic Deep Water measured in Sverdrups (Sv). Along the eastern continental shelf on the right, surface trade winds push warm water offshore, tilting the blue thermocline upward and drawing green nutrient-rich deep water into the sunlit euphotic zone. Students can drag the wind arrow or polar iceberg, test freshwater melt slowdowns, and switch into El Niño Shutdown mode.

• Increase Polar freshwater melt toward 90% and watch North Atlantic seawater density drop, slowing the deep sinking rate in Sverdrups.
• Drag the yellow Trade Winds arrow or raise Trade wind strength to 95% to tilt the thermocline steeply and boost coastal nutrient upwelling.
• Select El Niño Shutdown mode to see how slackening trade winds flatten the thermocline and cut off cold nutrient-rich water along the coast.
• Toggle the thermocline surface on and off while orbiting the 3D basin to compare warm surface currents with abyssal return flow.

1. 1Explain how temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline) control seawater density and drive deep ocean overturning.
2. 2Describe how polar freshwater ice melt reduces high-latitude surface water density and weakens the ocean conveyor belt.
3. 3Illustrate how offshore surface winds drive coastal upwelling and tilt the thermocline upward near continental shelves.
4. 4Connect El Niño wind weakening to a deeper eastern thermocline and reduced marine nutrient productivity.

Questions teachers ask