Strong tidal currents, changes in the sea floor, and winds funneling through Cook Strait stir complicated flow patterns off of New Zealand’s South Island.
Surf’s up! This image is a mosaic of two photographs taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station viewing large internal waves in the Strait of Gibraltar. These subsurface internal waves occur at depths of about 100 m, but appear in the sunglint as giant swells flowing eastward into the Mediterranean Sea. The narrow Strait of Gibraltar is the gatekeeper for water exchange between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. A top layer of warm, relatively fresh water from the Atlantic Ocean flows eastward into the Mediterranean Sea. In return, a lower, colder, saltier layer of water flows westward into the North Atlantic ocean. A density boundary separates the layers at about 100 m depth.
The city of Gallipoli sits at a crossroads between the Marmara and Aegean Seas, connected by the Dardanelles Strait. he urbanized area of modern Gallipoli is visible as a light gray to pink region at the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait.