Oyashio Current

The Oyashio Current colliding with the Kuroshio Current near Hokkaido. When two currents collide, they create eddies. Phytoplankton growing in the surface waters become concentrated along the boundaries of these eddies, tracing out the motions of the water.

The ocean currents surrounding the Japanese Archipelago: 1.Kuroshio 2. Kuroshio extension 3. Kuroshio countercurrent 4. The Tsushima Current 5. The Tsugaru Current 6. The Sōya Current 7. Oyashio 8. The Liman Current

Oyashio (親潮, Parental Tide^?), also known as Oya Siwo, Okhotsk or the Kurile current, is a cold subarctic ocean current that flows south and circulates counterclockwise in the western North Pacific Ocean. It collides with the Kuroshio Current off the eastern shore of Japan to form the North Pacific Current (or Drift). This cold current flows through Bering Strait in the southern direction and transports cold water of the Arctic Sea into the Pacific ocean. The waters of the Oyashio Current originate in the Arctic Ocean and flow southward via the Bering Sea. The current has an important impact on the climate of the Russian Far East, mainly in Kamchatka and Chukotka, where the northern limit of tree growth is moved up to ten degrees south of the latitude it can reach in inland Siberia. The waters of the Oyashio Current form probably the richest fishery in the world owing to the extremely high nutrient content of the cold water and the very high tides (up to ten metres) in some areas - which further enhances the availability of nutrients. However, the Oyashio Current also causes Vladivostok to be the most equatorward port to seasonally freeze and require icebreaking ships to remain open in winter. Nonetheless, this has relatively little effect on the fish yield through the Sea of Okhotsk because the large tides mean freezing does not occur so easily.

Another important feature of the Oyashio Current is that during glacial periods, when lower sea level causes the formation of the Bering land bridge, the current cannot flow and in the regions the Oyashio affects today, the level of cooling with the onset of glacial conditions (after an interglacial) is much less than in other areas of the Earth at similar latitudes. This allowed Tōhoku and Hokkaidō, which were the only areas of East Asia that receive enough snowfall to potentially form glaciers, to remain unglaciated except at high elevations during periods when Europe and North America were largely glaciated. This lack of glaciation explains why, despite its present climate being much colder than most of Europe, East Asia has retained 96 percent of Pliocene tree genera, whereas Europe has retained only 27%.

See also

• Ocean current
• Oceanic gyres
• Physical oceanography
• Japanese destroyer Oyashio, the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer named after the Current.

References

• Reddy, MPM (2001): Descriptive physical oceanography Taylor and Francis, ISBN 90 5410 706 5, pp 367-368

External links

• UNEP Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) Regional Definition page for the Oyashio Current, accessed 2 July 2010

This article about a specific ocean current is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Marine geography stubs Ocean currents Pacific Ocean Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат? Clan Kennedy More Adventurous Look at other dictionaries: Oyashio Current — /oy euh shee oh/; Japn. /aw yah shee aw/, n. a cold ocean current flowing SW from the Bering Sea, E of the Kurile Islands, along the E coast of Japan where it meets the Japan Current. Also called Okhotsk Current. * * * …   Universalium Oyashio Current — /oy euh shee oh/; Japn. /aw yah shee aw/, n. a cold ocean current flowing SW from the Bering Sea, E of the Kurile Islands, along the E coast of Japan where it meets the Japan Current. Also called Okhotsk Current …   Useful english dictionary Oyashio — Oyashio, may refer to: Oyashio Current, an ocean current One of the following Japanese warships: Oyashio, a Kagero class destroyer commissioned in 1940 JDS Oyashio (SS 511), a submarine commissioned in 1960 JDS Oyashio (SS 590), an Oyashio class… …   Wikipedia Oyashio class submarine — The SS590 Oyashio Class overview Name: Oyashio (おやしお, Cold Current) Builders …   Wikipedia Current ships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force — JDS Hyūga (DDH 181) …   Wikipedia Oyashio — (Japanese Father Current) cold Okhotsk Current …   Eponyms, nicknames, and geographical games Japanese submarine Oyashio (SS-511) — Following the loan of the Gato class submarine USS Mingo as an underwater target in 1955, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force proposed the construction of three new classes of submarine, of 250, 500 and 1000 tons. In the end only the latter was …   Wikipedia North Pacific Current — The North Pacific Current. The North Pacific Current (sometimes referred to as the North Pacific Drift) is a slow warm water current that flows west to east between 40 and 50 degrees north in the Pacific Ocean. The current forms the southern part …   Wikipedia Kamchatka Current — The Kamchatka Current is a cold water current flowing south westward from the Bering Strait, along the Siberian Pacific coast and the Kamchatka Peninsula. A portion of this current then becomes the Oyashio Current while the remainder joins the… …   Wikipedia Okhotsk Current. — See Oyashio Current. * * * …   Universalium 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”