James Stewart
speaker
4,486 appearances
22 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 6d ago
James Stewart’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Currents.
One of the theories often put forward about disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is the role of the Gulf Stream, a fast moving and unpredictable current that could potentially throw sailors off course.
Well, this region in the Pacific has its own version, the Kuroshio Current or Black Current, known for its dark cobalt blue waters.
Early Chinese marinas called it Weilu, or the current to a world from which no man has ever returned, which sounds pretty ominous.
Driven by winds and the Earth's spin, the Kuro Shio begins life in the tropical Philippine Sea, flowing north of Taiwan.
When it reaches Japan, it collides with a frigid sub-arctic countercurrent from the Bering Sea and snakes wildly along the coast until it shoots east toward North America.
Here it becomes known as the Kuroshio Extension.
It's what's known as a boundary current, a river of water flowing parallel to a continental coastline.
Think of it as one of the veins and arteries of the global ocean, moving large amounts of carbon, nutrients and heat around our planet.
And this thing moves fast, at a rate of 2.5 metres per second.
And it's deep too, up to a thousand metres below sea level, able to influence weather patterns as far away as North America.
And there's evidence it's on the move.
By analysing decades of satellite-derived data which monitors sea surface height, and deploying oceanographic sensors, scientists have tracked its progress.
In recent years, the northern edge of this powerful current has shifted up to 480 kilometers to the north, leading to unprecedented changes in water temperatures and sea levels.
How much of this is a natural cycle is yet to be determined, but there's mounting evidence that the Hadley cell, a tropical atmospheric circulation pattern, is expanding due to our old friend climate change, which of course shifts wind patterns.
When the winds move, currents like this one move too.
And then tropical water starts showing up where historically it wasn't showing up before.
A 2025 study from scientists at the Japan Meteorological Agency and Meteorological Research Institutes found that in the 2023-2024 intensive maritime heatwave conditions, water temperatures in places were up to 10 degrees Celsius warmer than usual.
Ocean conditions hugely impacted fisheries and also contributed to record heat waves over land.
And that's the thing, this is all connected.
Showing 3541–3560 of 4,486 · page 178 of 225
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