A schematic showing the ocean "conveyor belt", where surface waters sink, enter deep water circulation, then resurface after slowly flowing through the deep ocean.
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Windows to the Universe original image
The Deep Waters of the Ocean
Do you know how deep the
ocean is? In a lot of places, it is as deep as some of the mountains on Earth are tall. When we swim in the ocean or go sailing on the ocean, we are in
the surface waters of the ocean. But, most of the water in the ocean is in the deep ocean.
The deep ocean isn't directly affected by wind or storms or waves or tides. The deep waters in the ocean are in layers. The top layers are less dense than the bottom layers. All of the deep ocean water is very cold and salty!
Some of the water on the surface of the ocean sinks to the deep parts of the ocean. Then the water spends a long time (thousands of years, sometimes!) in the deep part of the ocean. Then the water comes back to the surface. The picture above shows that. Take your finger and trace a path that the ocean water could take. Can you see a way that the ocean water could take a different path?
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