upwelling
an act or instance of welling up: an upwelling of public support; an upwelling of emotion in his voice.
Oceanography. the process by which warm, less-dense surface water is drawn away from along a shore by offshore currents and replaced by cold, denser water brought up from the subsurface.
Origin of upwelling
1Words Nearby upwelling
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use upwelling in a sentence
It started riding on ocean upwellings to feed on krill and zooplankton, casting off part of its bottom-dweller status.
Icefish build bizarre undersea nests—and that’s just the beginning | Shi En Kim | January 21, 2022 | Popular-ScienceBecause tectonic plates are pulling apart there, there’s no resistance to upwelling of hot rock from deep in the mantle.
Some volcanic hot spots may have a surprisingly shallow heat source | Sid Perkins | January 6, 2022 | Science NewsIf we didn’t have the ocean circulation or upwelling, you wouldn’t have fish.
The Atlantic’s vital currents could collapse. Scientists are racing to understand the dangers. | James Temple | December 14, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewAnother big question is how convection in the mantle—the upwelling of hot rock—is affecting the crustal blocks’ motion on Venus.
Jostling in Venus’ crust could reveal clues about Earth’s early geology | Monroe Hammond | June 25, 2021 | Popular-ScienceIt just happens that our latest offering is being released at the time of a terrible upwelling of violence.
Mosaic director reconnects with his ‘Palestinian side’ in new show | Patrick Folliard | May 21, 2021 | Washington Blade
Sorrow in her was aroused by many a spectacle—an uncritical upwelling of grief for the weak and the helpless.
Sister Carrie | Theodore DreiserFor that very reason he feels as never before a great upwelling of affection for all things around him, animate and inanimate.
Knut Hamsun | Hanna Astrup Larsen"I'll have to tell him something," she thought with a sudden upwelling of feeling as regarded the seriousness of this duty.
Jennie Gerhardt | Theodore DreiserBut the mood passed away before a fresh upwelling of concrete resentment against the self-pampered pair at the Promenade window.
Ghetto Tragedies | Israel ZangwillBut the hollowness of Cally's speech had mocked the sudden sympathy upwelling within her.
V. V.'s Eyes | Henry Sydnor Harrison
Scientific definitions for upwelling
[ ŭp-wĕl′ĭng ]
The rising of cold, usually nutrient-rich waters from the ocean depths to the warmer, sunlit zone at the surface. Upwelling usually occurs in the subtropics along the western continental coasts, where prevailing trade winds drive the surface water away from shore, drawing deeper water upward to take its place. Because of the abundance of krill and other nutrients in the colder waters, these regions are rich feeding grounds for a variety of marine and avian species. Upwelling can also occur in the middle of oceans where cyclonic circulation is relatively permanent or where southern trade winds cross the Equator.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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