Editing Physical oceanography (section)

===Ocean currents===
Among the most important [[ocean current]]s are the:
* [[Antarctic Circumpolar Current]]
* [[Thermohaline circulation|Deep ocean]] (density-driven)
* Western boundary currents
** [[Gulf Stream]]
** [[Kuroshio Current]]
** [[Labrador Current]]
** [[Oyashio Current]]
** [[Agulhas Current]]
** [[Brazil Current]]
** [[East Australia Current]]
* Eastern Boundary currents
** [[California Current]]
** [[Canary Current]]
** [[Peru Current]]
** [[Benguela Current]]

{{further|Ocean gyre}}

====Antarctic circumpolar====
The ocean body surrounding the [[Antarctic]] is currently the only continuous body of water where there is a wide latitude band of open water. It interconnects the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]], [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] and [[Indian Ocean|Indian]] oceans, and provide an uninterrupted stretch for the prevailing westerly winds to significantly increase wave amplitudes. It is generally accepted that these prevailing winds are primarily responsible for the circumpolar current transport. This current is now thought to vary with time, possibly in an oscillatory manner.

====Deep ocean====
In the [[Norwegian Sea]] evaporative cooling is predominant, and the sinking water mass, the [[North Atlantic Deep Water]] (NADW), fills the basin and spills southwards through crevasses in the [[submarine sill]]s that connect [[Greenland]], [[Iceland]] and [[Great Britain|Britain]]. It then flows along the western boundary of the Atlantic with some part of the flow moving eastward along the equator and then poleward into the ocean basins. The NADW is entrained into the Circumpolar Current, and can be traced into the Indian and Pacific basins. Flow from the [[Arctic Ocean]] Basin into the Pacific, however, is blocked by the narrow shallows of the [[Bering Strait]].

Also see '''[[marine geology]]''' about that explores the [[geology]] of the ocean floor including [[plate tectonics]] that create deep ocean trenches.

====Western boundary====
An idealised subtropical ocean basin forced by winds circling around a high pressure (anticyclonic) systems such as the Azores-Bermuda high develops a [[gyre]] circulation with slow steady flows towards the equator in the interior. As discussed by [[Henry Stommel]], these flows are balanced in the region of the western boundary, where a thin fast polewards flow called a [[western boundary current]] develops. Flow in the real ocean is more complex, but the [[Gulf Stream]], Agulhas and [[Kuroshio Current|Kuroshio]] are examples of such currents. They are narrow (approximately 100&nbsp;km across) and fast (approximately 1.5&nbsp;m/s).

Equatorwards western boundary currents occur in tropical and polar locations, e.g. the East Greenland and Labrador currents, in the Atlantic and the [[Oyashio Current|Oyashio]]. They are forced by winds circulation around low pressure (cyclonic).

;Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension, [[North Atlantic Current]], is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the [[Gulf of Mexico]], exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland to the northeast before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

;Kuroshio
The [[Kuroshio Current]] is an ocean current found in the western Pacific Ocean off the east coast of [[Taiwan]] and flowing northeastward past [[Japan]], where it merges with the easterly drift of the [[North Pacific Current]]. It is analogous to the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, transporting warm, tropical water northward towards the polar region.