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Kōrero: Ocean currents and tides

Down the gurgler

Video file

Watch water, dyed red, go down the same plughole, clockwise then anti-clockwise. It dispels the myth that water swirls down a plughole in one direction in the southern hemisphere and in the opposite direction in the northern hemisphere. It is only large systems such as ocean currents and weather systems that are affected by the Coriolis force, which is caused by the earth’s rotation. It is this force that causes ocean currents to veer to the left in the southern hemisphere.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

by Carl Walrond

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Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Craig Stevens rāua ko Stephen Chiswell, Ocean currents and tides – Flows on the continental shelf, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/video/9926/down-the-gurgler (accessed 25 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Craig Stevens rāua ko Stephen Chiswell, i tāngia i te 2 March 2009.