ocean
"The ocean is like a birthday cake - the topmost layer holds the icing, the richest portion "
"For the ocean bottom is like the farmer's field, and both men know their ground intimately. The only difference is, the fisherman's field is usually over 100 feet below..."
It's the movement of water within water that is driven by the wind.
"Ocean circulation is like a jigsaw puzzle. In the ocean a myriad of physical processes with small scales contribute to the global flow, just as many small puzzle pieces must be assembled properly to produce the picture on the box. Improvements in ocean observing techniques and numerical models are just now allowing oceanographers to study ocean circulation at the ``puzzle piece'' level."
"The California coast is less vulnerable, relative to some tropical locales, to ocean acidification because of the strong upwelling of deep ocean water offshore. The deep water is colder and more nutrient-rich than the surface water. In effect, the deep ocean circulation is like a tape recorder, and we are replaying the CO2 levels from 50 years ago, when those parcels of water were last at the surface."
"The URI professor said that large-scale deep ocean circulation is like a global conveyor belt moving warm and cool waters in consistent patterns around the world. But, he added, global warming has the potential to decrease or even shut down this conveyor belt, which would have important consequences for the Earth's climate and marine ecosystems."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.