When you look at the seas and oceans on the
map you might think that they just flow into each other. It seems like thereâs only one big ocean,
and people just gave different names to its parts. Well, youâll be amazed at how vivid the
borders between them are! The border between the Pacific and Atlantic
oceans is like a line between 2 worlds. It looks as if the two oceans meet at an invisible
wall which does not let them flow into each other and mix their waters. Why on Earth does it happen? We know for sure there is no invisible wall
inside, and water is water. What could interfere with its mixing? The thing is that water can be different too. The Atlantic and the Pacific oceans have different
density and chemical make-up, the level of salinity and other qualities. One can see by their color that they are far
from being the same. The borders between two bodies of water with
different physical and biological characteristics are known as ocean clines. Haloclines â borders between waters with
different salinity â are the most spectacular, and this is what we see when the Atlantic
and the Pacific oceans meet. The famous explorer Jacques Cousteau found
this when he was deep diving in the Strait of Gibraltar. The layers of water with different salinity
looked like they were divided with a transparent film, and each layer had its own flora and
fauna. Haloclines appear when water in one ocean
or sea is at least 5 times saltier than in the other. You can create a halocline at home if you
pour some seawater or colored salty water in a glass and then add some fresh water on
top of it. The only difference is that your halocline
will be horizontal, and ocean haloclines are vertical. If you remember a couple of basic things from
physics you might argue that a denser liquid should finally end up lower and less dense
higher. If that were true the border between the two
oceans would look not like a vertical line but as a horizontal one, and the difference
between their salinity would become less obvious the closer they got to each other. So why doesnât it happen here? Well, first, the difference in density of
water of the two oceans is not that great for one of them to get down and the other
to rise up. And yet itâs enough not to let them mix. Still, another reason is inertia. One of the inertial forces known as Coriolis
force influences objects when they are moving in the system of axes which, in its turn,
is moving too. In simpler words, the Earth is moving, and
all the moving objects on it will be acted upon by Coriolis force, deviating from their
course. As a result, the objects on the Earth surface
donât move straight on but deviate in clockwise order in the Northern hemisphere and counterclockwise
in the Southern. But the Earth is moving slowly, it takes the
planet a whole day to make a full circle around its axis. Thatâs why the Coriolis effect gets obvious
only in long time intervals: with cyclones or ocean flows. And this is why the direction of flows in
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is different. It also doesnât let them mix. Another important difference between the two
oceans' water is the strength of molecules' connection, or surface tensile strength. Thanks to this strength, molecules of a matter
hold to each other. The two oceans have a totally different surface
tensile strength, and it also doesnât let them mix. Maybe they could gradually start mixing with
time, but as the flows in them have opposite directions, they just donât have time to
do this. We think that itâs just water in both oceans,
but its separate molecules meet for just a short moment and then get carried away with
the ocean flow. Donât you think, though, that only the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans donât get on well with each other! There are a lot of places on the planet where
water in the two seas or rivers does not mix. There are also thermoclines â borders between
water of different temperatures, like the warm water of Gulf Stream and much colder
North Atlantic Ocean. Chemoclines are the most amazing ones. These are borders between waters having different
microclimate and chemical make-up. The Sargasso Sea is the biggest and most widely
known chemocline. It is a sea within the Atlantic Ocean which
has no shores but youâve got no chance not to notice it. Letâs have a look at other most spectacular
clines on the planet. 1. The North and Baltic Seas These two seas meet near the Danish city of
Skagen. The water in them does not mix because of
different density. Sometimes you can see the waves of the 2 seas
clash into each other, making foam. And yet their water mixes gradually, thatâs
why the Baltic Sea is slightly saline. If there had been no water coming to it from
the North Sea it wouldâve been a huge freshwater lake. 2. The Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. They meet at the Strait of Gibraltar and have
a different density and salinity, so their water does not mix too. 3. The Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean
The place where they meet is near the Antilles and looks like someone has painted water with
different shades of blue. Another place where these two meet is the
Eleuthera Island of Bahamas. The Caribbean seawater is turquoise and the
Atlantic Ocean water is dark blue. 4. The Surinam River and the Atlantic Ocean meet
near Paramaribo in South America. 5. The Uruguay River and its afflux
These two meet in Misiones province in Argentina. One of them is cleaned to be used in agriculture,
and the other gets almost red because of loam during rainy seasons. 6. The Rio Negro and SolimĂľes Rivers (part of
the Amazon River) 6 miles from Manaus in Brazil, Rio Negro and
Solimoes rivers low into each other but donât mix for about 2.5 miles. The Rio Negro is dark and Solimoes â light,
they have a different temperature and speed of flow. 7. Mosel and Rhein
They meet in Koblenz, Germany. Rheine has lighter water and Mosel â darker. 8. Ilz, Danube, and Inn
The junction of these 3 rivers is in Passau, Germany. Ilz is a small mountain river to the left,
the Danube is in the middle, and Inn is the light river to the right. Inn is wider than the Danube here but still
is its afflux. 9. Alaknanda and Bhagirathi Rivers meet in India. Alaknanda is dark and Bhagirathi is light. 10. Irtysh and Ulba flow into each other in Kazakhstan
near the city whose name youâll never be able to pronounce, nor will I. You give it a shot. (Ust'-Kamenogorsk.) The Irtysh has clean water and Ulba â cloudy. 11. The Jialing and Yangtze Rivers meet in Chongqing,
China. The Jialing is clean and the Yangtze is brown. 12. Irtysh and Om
These two rivers flow into each other in Omsk, Russia. The Irtysh is cloudy and the Om â pure and
transparent. 13. Chuya and Katun rivers meet in the Altai Republic,
Russia. The water of the Chuya has an unusual cloudy
white color here and looks dense and thick. Katun is clean and turquoise. Flowing into each other they form a single
two-colored flow that does not mix for some time. 14. The Green and Colorado rivers
The place of their junction is Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA. Colorado is brown and Green is â yep, green. The corridors of these rivers go through rocks
with different chemical make-up, thatâs why they have such a big contrast of colors. 15. The Rhone and Arve rivers
They flow into each other in Geneva, Switzerland. The Rhone is a pure river that flows out of
the lake of Geneva, the Arve is cloudy as it gets its water from glaciers of the Chamonix
valley. So, water you think about all this water? Of course itâs a bad joke, like a lot of
my bad pronunciations of those river names. Hey, if you learned something new today, then
give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other cool videos I think
you'll enjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stay
on the Bright Side of life!
Turf-war... NO!... Surf-War
Tldw?