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The Global Conveyor Belt

The Global Conveyor Belt
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.91

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    atmosphere, mass, decrease, form, during, lighter, cause, affects, increase, land, impact, world, movement, weak, earth, third
     content words:    Atlantic Ocean, Antarctic Bottom Water, North Atlantic Deep Water, Bottom Water, Atlantic Intermediate Water, Atlantic Deep Water, Intermediate Water, Deep Water, Global Conveyor Belt, Indian Ocean

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The Global Conveyor Belt
By Patti Hutchison 		  
1     The continents are masses of land on the earth. Air masses move through the atmosphere. Did you know that there are water masses also? Differences in temperature and salinity cause movement of large masses of water in the oceans.
 
2     Temperatures on the surface of the ocean at the equator are very warm. But near the ocean floor, they are close to freezing. This deep, cold water comes from the polar seas.
 
3     When sea water freezes near the poles, sea ice forms. But the salt in the water does not mix in with the ice crystals. It builds up under the ice. This cold water becomes denser and sinks. It moves toward the equator along the ocean floor.
 
4     Other cold, deep water masses form in another way. Surface currents carry warm tropical water to the poles. As it cools, the water becomes denser and sinks to the bottom.

Paragraphs 5 to 13:
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