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Ocean Currents | CK-12 Foundation Skip Navigation  8.17: Deep
Ocean Currents   How are ocean currents like a conveyor belt?
Seawater doesn't just circulate around the surface, it moves
through the deep sea. Just like at the surface, normal
circulation patterns transport much of the water. Seawater is
moved as if on a conveyor through the surface and deep ocean, a
trip that takes hundreds of years.  Deep Currents  Thermohaline
circulation drives deep ocean circulation. Thermo means heat and
haline refers to salinity. Differences in temperature and in
salinity change the density of seawater. So thermohaline
circulation is the result of density differences in water masses
because of their different temperature and salinity.  What is
the temperature and salinity of very dense water? Lower
temperature and higher salinity yield the densest water. When a
volume of water is cooled, the molecules move less vigorously,
so same number of molecules takes u