Where is the Humboldt Current located?

South America
The Humboldt Current is a cold water ocean current that flows north from Antarctica along the west coast of South America, bringing nutrient rich water to the Galapagos Islands and helping to sustain the islands rich biodiversity.

How does the Humboldt Current affect life in the Galapagos?

The Humboldt Current is disrupted during el Niño years, as it affects air pressure, decreases trade winds and causes warmer water to move east from the Western Pacific. With the Humboldt weakened, fish move elsewhere to feed and birds, sea lions and other Galapagos animals starve.

Where does the Humboldt Current originate?

Chile
Named after the Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, the current originates in the southern tip of Chile and flows north to Peru and then west along the equator, bathing the Galapagos archipelago. The current has an impacting cooling influence in the climates of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and Peru.

What is the current around the Galapagos Islands?

Three large and strong sea currents influence the Galapagos marine life entering the archipelago constantly: the Humboldt Current, the Panama Flow and the Cromwell Current. The Humboldt and Cromwell Currents come up from the dark depths, carried with massive amounts of nutrients.

How cold is the Humboldt Current?

The current extends from southern Chile (~45th parallel south) to northern Peru (~4th parallel south) where cold, upwelled, waters intersect warm tropical waters to form the Equatorial Front. Sea surface temperatures off the coast of Peru, around 5th parallel south, reach temperatures as low as 16 °C (61 °F).

Which current is the largest in all the world’s oceans?

The world’s largest ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (21,000 km in length) moves perpetually eastward here and transports 130,000,000 m³ of water per second—100 times the flow of all the world’s rivers combined.

How strong is the Humboldt Current?

The Humboldt Current is considered a Class I, highly productive (>300 gC/m2/yr) ecosystem. The current hosts a wide range of organisms including multiple species of plankton, mollusks, sea urchins, crustaceans, fish, and marine mammals.

Is Agulhas current warm or cold?

One of the fastest-flowing currents in any ocean, it reaches an estimated top speed of 5.8 miles (9.3 km) per hour off the southeast coast of South Africa. Because it is fed from lower latitudes, the Agulhas Current is warm, ranging in temperature from 57 to 79 °F (14 to 26 °C) at the surface.

How many animals live in the Galapagos Islands?

9,000 species
Nearly 9,000 species are found on the islands and their surrounding waters, many of them endemic.

What does Galapagos mean in English?

tortoise
It means tortoise. It has meant tortoise for thousands of years.

What are the three largest seas?

The largest terrestrial seas are:

Australasian Mediterranean Sea – 9.080 million km.
Philippine Sea – 5.695 million km.
Coral Sea – 4.791 million km.
American Mediterranean Sea – 4

How does the Humboldt Current affect the Galapagos Islands?

The Humboldt Current has a remarkable influence over life in the Galapagos Islands, and it also influences the temperature of the sea very significantly as well. It may surprise some to learn that the Humboldt Current influences life on land, as well as in the sea in the Galapagos.

Where do ocean currents meet in the Galapagos Islands?

Galapagos: Where Ocean Currents Meet. Now called the Humboldt Current, after the 19th century European explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, this most massive of ocean currents sweeps north up the western edge of South America.

Why are the Galapagos Islands in the ocean?

The Humboldt Current. The amazing diversity of life on the Galapagos Islands is largely due to a phenomenon known as the Humboldt Current. Ocean currents are caused and affected by many different factors, including the gravitational pull of the moon, the earth’s rotation, underwater geography, salinity, wind and water temperature.

Which is more rich in nutrients Humboldt or Galapagos?

This current isn’t nearly as rich in nutrients as the Humboldt, but it does make for warmer diving with better visibility, as well as sunnier skies and an explosion of green on land. That’s three ocean currents so far.

Where is the Humboldt Current located? South America The Humboldt Current is a cold water ocean current that flows north from Antarctica along the west coast of South America, bringing nutrient rich water to the Galapagos Islands and helping to sustain the islands rich biodiversity. How does the Humboldt Current affect life in the Galapagos?…