Plants and animals also lose water through leaves, sweat, excretion, or by exhaling. As water vapor rises, it becomes cooler, losing energy and forming clouds. Rain falls from the sky, collecting in streams that flow into rivers that reach the sea. Surface water evaporates to rise as water vapor once again. Scientists call this process the surface, less than water cycle.
Winds blowing from high and low pressure regions in the tropics push surface water basins.
Water currents traveling across the ocean meet continental land masses,turning to flow along shorelines. Generally, major water currents flow in United States flow in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The mightiest of all ocean currents, the Circumpolar Current, flows in a complete circle around Antarctica. Sometimes major water currents change when winds weaken or blow in a different direction. One well-studied change is El Nino, the occurrence of warm water current off the coast of Ecuador and Peru.