explain how ocean current help in navigation
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Winds, water density, and tides all drive ocean currents. Coastal and sea floor features influence their location, direction, and speed. Earth’s rotation results in the Coriolis Effect which also influences ocean currents. Similar to a person trying to walk in a straight line across a spinning merry-go-round, winds and ocean waters get deflected from a straight line path as they travel across the rotating Earth. This phenomenon causes ocean currents in the Northern Hemisphere to veer to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere to the left.
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An ocean current has a well defined path and momentum formed by the combined effect of Earth's rotation, pressure gradient and wind speed. A ship passing through a current experiences the momentum of that current itself. If the current direction isn't where the ship is headed, the ship has to consume more fuel to provide the necessary thrust to counter the current's momentum. Or the ship can utilize the current's momentum to gain additional thrust, consuming less fuel, only if the current's path leads to where the ship is headed.
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