the.com/upwelling
The ocean's way of burping up a four-course meal from the deep.
means The process by which cold, nutrient-rich water rises from the ocean depths to the surface, usually pushed up by winds dragging surface water out of the way.
from Simply built from 'up' plus 'welling,' from the verb 'well' — meaning to rise or gush, as water does from a spring. 'Well' in this sense traces back to Old English 'wella' or 'weallan,' meaning to boil or bubble up, related to the same root that gives us 'wallow' and 'wave.' The oceanographic sense of 'upwelling,' describing this specific deep-water-to-surface current, is a more modern scientific application of a very old word for water simply rising.
- the mechanism
- wind pushes surface water away, cold water rises to replace it
- the irony
- nutrient-rich water is usually colder and darker, not warmer
- the payoff
- fuels the biggest fisheries on earth, like coastal peru
- the risk
- stop the wind, stop the upwelling, starve the food chain