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The Circumpolar current that surrounds Antarctica isolates it from the warm equatorial waters above allowing Antarctica to maintain its ice sheet year round.
It is the only ocean current that circumnavigates the globe in the east-west direction connecting the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean basins.
This current flows faster than any other ocean or river current in the world with an average flow rate of 125,000,000 cubic meters of water per second. In contrast all of the freshwater rivers in the world combined have a flow rate of only 1,000,000 cubic meters of water per second.
The high flow rate and strong westerly winds in the southern ocean create turbulence in the water which make them difficult to navigate in the best of times and impossible most of the year. This mixing however also causes large amounts of upwelling to occur in the southern ocean where cold, nutrient rich, deep water rises to the surface creating a sea that is rich in phytoplankton and zooplankton during the summer months., especially in the Ross and Weddell seas where the ice sheets are melting and the water is mixing in smaller gyres bound by the antarctic landmass.
It is the only ocean current that circumnavigates the globe in the east-west direction connecting the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean basins.
This current flows faster than any other ocean or river current in the world with an average flow rate of 125,000,000 cubic meters of water per second. In contrast all of the freshwater rivers in the world combined have a flow rate of only 1,000,000 cubic meters of water per second.
The high flow rate and strong westerly winds in the southern ocean create turbulence in the water which make them difficult to navigate in the best of times and impossible most of the year. This mixing however also causes large amounts of upwelling to occur in the southern ocean where cold, nutrient rich, deep water rises to the surface creating a sea that is rich in phytoplankton and zooplankton during the summer months., especially in the Ross and Weddell seas where the ice sheets are melting and the water is mixing in smaller gyres bound by the antarctic landmass.