If water always moves down then wouldn't it be moving upward also?

Question

Since lets say iceland is upward on the globe and the water from around it moves down towards antartica then moves back to iceland so wouldnt it be moving both ways

Answer 1

If "A" is "B", and "C" is not "A," then "C" is "B."

That is called a "false syllogism" and if you think a while about it you will realize that there is nothing at all in the entire statement to connect "C" with either "A" or "B." That's what you did with water moving down and up.

You connected two different conditions and tried to make them equal.

"Water seeks its own level," or "water always runs down hill" are both conditionally correct statements. Conditions must be present to make them true - and they are not entirely connected.

If you have a floor at home with a little bump that goes down into the surface of the floor, and if you pour water at the edge of the bump, then you will probably see the water pool in the bump. That's roughly a "proof" that water runs down hill.

But if you pour the water onto the floor some distance away, perhaps the water will not run into the bump. Why? Oh, perhaps the floor is level at the place where it was poured, and just spreads out a ways into an even layer. Or perhaps the are where you poured it is lower than the area around the bump. Any number of reasons could explain this.

The water on the floor is just an isolated accident. It is not a complete, enclosed system of water that constantly flows around your home. Sometimes, the water seems to flow "down hill." Other times, It just sits there and makes you mad.

On the globe of our planet, the water in the oceans is an entirely different matter. It is very complex, almost like a living creature of many parts. Because you may live in the Northern Hmisphere, you consider Iceland "up," and the Equator the middle with antarctica "down." It does not ultimately matter, but in the ocean there is no "up" or "down," just "here" and there" and the complex conditions of the ocean dictate the behavior of the water at those locations.

Water just plain gets around.

Some of the water flows through the narrow neck of the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the Mediterranean Sea flows out into the Atlantic Ocean. Over about 80 years, all of the water in the Mediterranean Sea finally is exchanged with Atlantic Ocean water.

And some of THAT water goes to Iceland. Those icelanders eventually get Lebanese water.

In fact, over a very very long time, all of the ocean water visits Iceland.

Much of it is delivered by the Gulf Stream, which starts out warm in the South Atlantic and goes back cold from around Iceland to the South Atlantic. Although Ponce de Leon first noticed this back in the 1500's, the Gulf Stream was not charted until the later 1700's when a curious George by the name of Benjamin Franklin studied the current and eventually published the first scientific treatise about the subject.

So the answer to your question is "yes," and "no." But thank you for thinking about your question well enough to use the Iceland explanation, including a relative definition of "up" and "down." And please take the advice of another poster here who suggested you turn your maps around. Stuff on the planet REALLY looks different if you change the position of the map - even though nothing at all in reality has changed!

Answer 2

You are thinking that Antartica is "below" all the other continents, but that is just a reference that Man makes up to look at the globe....Water moving down is in relativity to the center of the earth, not North and South. Water is a slave to gravity and will always seek the lowest point...down, if you will, to the center of gravity, which is the center of the earth. Science has found a way to make water travel upwards by using a stronger force than gravity...a nice reaearch topic. Flip your globe upside down and look at the world in a whole new perspective...

Answer 3

Water does not necessarily flow toward the equator.

Oceans have many currents. One flows up from the Gulf of Mexico, along the US coast, across the Atlantic (near Iceland), down Europe, etc.

Answer 4

water can only move down -- gravity -- rivers flow downhill never uphill -- water can move "up" on a map or flow north -- ocean currents can move "up" north on a map