Physics - High Energy Part 2

The highest energy thing we have going here is the rotation of the Earth, followed by the radiation heat deep in the Mantle.  I don't know how many atomic bombs they are, or how many seconds of the Sun, but it is huge.  Man isn't even the flea on these elephants.  The orbit of the Moon is somewhere there, and that controls the tides.

For the rotation, two things leech off it - ocean currents, and atmospheric flow.  When deep water warms up and rises, it comes with a lag in rotational speed, and thus flows West.  The same for air rising when warmed.  The Earth is busy rushing from West to East.  Cold air and water accelerates when it drops.

You can look at the motions in my previous post.  If we didn't have inconvenient things like continents, our ocean and air currents would just zoom around in flat stripes, and look like Jupiter.

Forget that big alien landing pad.  This our Earth without N-S trending continents.

In the Atlantic we have the equatorial plume smashing into North and South America.  It does what plumes do when hitting a wall, it splits and the momentum goes up North and down South.  Like this.

But the Pacific plume has a tough time.  It goes into an island mess, like this.

This is an absorbing boundary.  The heat accumulates, and the energy also builds as a mound of water.  Sort of like water behind a dam.

-next - The Dam Busters