#2859: Oceanography Gift explain

[Cueball and Megan are standing thigh deep, at either edge of a stretch of water between two steep but walkable shorelines.]

[Cueball, at the left, is apparently opening bottles of water and pouring them into the sea while recording himself.]

Cueball: Happy birthday!

Cueball: I got you these water molecules.

[Sound effects:] (click) (pour)

[The water between has a morass of short swirling arrows indicating movement. In the air above this there is a square-bracketted ’label']

[Label:] 10 years pass

[Megan, at the right, is dipping bottles into the water to fill them]

Megan: Aww, thank you!

[Sound effect:] (scoop)

[Text below comic:]

Global surface ocean connectivity times are ≤10 years (Jönsson & Watson, 2016, DOI:10.1038/ncomms11239), so if you’re willing to plan ahead, you can pour water into the ocean while wishing someone a happy birthday, and then in 10 years let them know they can pick up their gift at the nearest coastline.