Tornadoes roar across the USA. Giant earthquakes rip Indonesia (8.7 on the Richter scale), Mexico (7.0), Gulf of California (7.0) and the Oregon coast region (5.5).Nations brace for giant tsunami waves to crash across the oceans. (Fortunately the waves didn’t come.) The Earth has been in constant movement this month.
It’s time to take a deep breath. We are on a giant ball spinning in space and sometimes it is a place of incredible beauty. Everything is moving, the air, the oceans, even the ground beneath us. It forms incredible patterns. Let’s step away from the scare headlines and enjoy the splendor of the Earth we live on.
Our planet and our oceans are in constant motion.
A team of artists and scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has assembled a short video that shows the ocean currents all over the world. Using satellite readings, sea measurements, even ship notes, the team, led by Greg Shirah, have assembled a model that shows the ebb and flow of the world’s oceans over two years. You can see the mighty Gulf Stream warming the American coastlines. Polar icecaps surge and melt. A cold La Niña chills the Tropical Pacific, and then warms to a balmy El Niño. A parade of swirls surrounds southern Africa like a necklace.
The video is a moment of quiet beauty. It shows the wonder of a living world.
The flow of the world’s ocean currents [3 minutes] SOURCE: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
I will write about storms and droughts in future blogs. For now, if you have seen something beautiful or strange this spring, please share it here with our readers.
Evelyn Browning Garriss, historical climatologist, blogger, writer for The Old Farmer's Almanac, and editor of The Browning Newsletter , has advised farmers, businesses, and investors worldwide on upcoming climate events and their economic and social impact for the past 21 years.