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Chapter 2
McGraw Hill Lesson 2 Oceans and Weather Systems
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| ocean current | a large volume of water flowing in a certain direction |
| surface content | a wind-driven current that carries ocean water horizontally across the ocean's surface |
| Gyre | a large circular system of ocean currents |
| Tropical cyclone | a generic term used by meteorologists to describe a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical water and has closed , low-level circulation |
| Hurricane | an intense tropical storm with winds exceeding 119 km/h |
| Coriolis effect | the apparent deflection of moving objects (like wind or ocean currents) caused by the Earth's rotation |
| temperature | is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules in a substance, indicating how hot or cold it is |