Gulf Stream

1. a warm ocean current flowing N from the Gulf of Mexico, along the E coast of the U.S., to an area off the SE coast of Newfoundland, where it becomes the western terminus of the North Atlantic Current.

2. See Gulf Stream system.

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Warm ocean current, part of a general clockwise-rotating system of currents in the North Atlantic.

A major contribution of the Gulf Stream is its warming effect on the climates of adjacent land areas. In winter, the air over the ocean west of Norway is more than 40°F (22°C) warmer than the average for that latitude, one of the greatest temperature anomalies in the world. Winters in southwestern England are extraordinarily mild for this northern latitude because of the Gulf Stream. Regions of the Gulf Stream, such as the Grand Banks, have been among the most productive commercial fishing grounds in the world.

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▪ ocean current

Introduction

      warm ocean current flowing in the North Atlantic (Atlantic Ocean) northeastward off the North American coast between Cape Hatteras, N.C., U.S., and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Can. In popular conception the Gulf Stream also includes the Florida Current (between the Straits of Florida and Cape Hatteras) and the West Wind Drift (east of the Grand Banks).

      The Gulf Stream is part of a general clockwise-rotating system of currents in the North Atlantic. It is fed by the westward-flowing North Equatorial Current moving from North Africa to the West Indies. Off the northeastern coast of South America, this current splits into the Caribbean Current, which passes into the Caribbean Sea and through the Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, and into the Antilles Current, which flows to the north and east of the West Indies. The Caribbean Current reemerges into the Atlantic through the Straits of Florida between the Florida Keys and Cuba to form the Florida Current. Deflected to the northeast by the submerged Great Bahama Bank southeast of the Florida Peninsula, this swift current is joined by the Antilles Current and flows roughly parallel to the eastern coast of the United States to about Cape Hatteras. There the path of the Gulf Stream becomes twisted as huge swirls of warm water break off. A part of the Gulf Stream forms a countercurrent that flows south and then west. The countercurrent rejoins the Gulf Stream on its seaward side along the coast of Florida and the Carolinas.

      The main portion of the Gulf Stream continues north, veering more to the east and passing close to the Grand Banks, south of Newfoundland, where it breaks up into swirling currents. Some of these eddies flow toward the British Isles and the Norwegian seas and form the North Atlantic Current (or Drift). A larger number flow south and east, either becoming part of westward-flowing countercurrents or joining the Canary Current.

History of scientific study

 The Gulf Stream was first described by the Spanish navigator and explorer Juan Ponce de León (Ponce de León, Juan) early in the 16th century. In the late 1700s Benjamin Franklin produced a map of the current. In 1844 systematic surveying of the stream was begun by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Concentrated modern efforts were inaugurated only in the early 1930s by the ketch Atlantis of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

      One of the difficulties of scientific study of the Gulf Stream is its extremely complex makeup. It is not a simple ribbon of moving water but rather a complicated network of currents that tend to shift course over time, to disappear and then reappear, and to develop eddies along the margins. Today, orbiting space satellites are utilized to map the path of the Gulf Stream. The satellites are equipped with sensors that can detect temperature and colour variations to trace the changing surface patterns of the current.

Movement and physical features

      Most of the waters that enter the Gulf Stream system first have been driven westward across the Atlantic by the Northeast Trade Winds (trade wind). In the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico the current is gradually narrowed, and its velocity increases to more than 3.5 knots (4 miles [6.5 km] per hour) as it passes through the Straits of Florida. The volume of flow there has been measured at 1,060,000,000 cubic feet (30,000,000 cubic metres) per second, or many hundreds of times that of the Mississippi River. As it turns north between Florida and the Bahamas, the Florida Current flows at a depth of some 2,600 feet (790 m) and then follows the continental slope beyond the edge of the shelf. Velocities gradually decrease to about one knot off Cape Hatteras.

      In the western Atlantic, the current's deep-blue water, with its higher temperature and salinity, is readily distinguishable from surrounding waters, particularly along its well-defined western margin. The eastern edge gradually moves seaward as the current moves northward. The water between the current and the North American mainland, with its lower salinity and temperature, forms a boundary known as the Cold Wall. This water, overlying the continental shelf, frequently has a southerly flow, counter to that of the Florida Current.

      Off the coast of the United States, the Gulf Stream system separates the relatively warm and saline waters of the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic region from the colder waters to the west and north. In winter, for example, average surface temperatures of the Gulf Stream off New England may be 20° F (11° C) higher than those of surface waters only 150 miles (240 km) to the northwest, although there is less than a 10° F (6° C) change in surface-water temperatures over a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) distance to the southeast.

      Beyond Cape Hatteras the Gulf Stream broadens and moves into deeper water. There it crosses the Western Boundary Undercurrent, which consists of cold, southward-flowing water that sinks to considerable depths in the vicinity of Greenland. About 1,500 miles (2,400 km) northeast of Cape Hatteras, in the area of the Grand Banks, the warm Gulf Stream waters come close to the cold, southward-flowing Labrador Current. The contact of cold, humid air moving over the Labrador Current with the warm surface waters of the Gulf Stream causes widespread condensation. This climatic condition causes the region to have one of the highest incidences of fog in the world.

      Moving out into the North Atlantic, the current becomes shallower and begins to break down into a meandering pattern of disconnected filaments flowing in the same general direction. Much of the initial force of the current has been dissipated by this time, and momentum is afforded primarily by the westerly winds. Part of the water there is diverted southward into the Sargasso Sea area. Near the middle of the ocean, the North Atlantic Current divides. One branch moves southeast and south as the relatively cool Canary Current, which flows past the Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Africa. The other branch (the balance of the North Atlantic Current) moves toward northwestern Europe.

Effects on marine and human life

      The marine organisms of the Gulf Stream system are not of great commercial (commercial fishing) value. Principal species include the bluefin tuna, the Atlantic salmon, and the flying fish. Its warm waters, however, in mingling with the colder waters both on the Grand Banks and off northwestern Europe, contribute to turbulence and the availability of nutrient salts that made these regions among the most productive commercial fishing grounds in the world until they were overfished in the 1980s and early '90s.

      A major contribution of the Gulf Stream system is its warming effect upon the climates of adjacent land areas. In winter the air over the ocean west of Norway is more than 40° F (22° C) warmer than the average for that latitude, one of the greatest temperature anomalies in the world. The prevailing westerly winds carry the warmth and moisture of the ocean to northwestern Europe, giving Bergen, Nor., at 60° N latitude, an average high temperature for its coldest month of 34° F (1° C), while Reykjavík, Ice., 4° of latitude farther north, has a 31° F (0° C) average for its coldest month. In southwestern England the climatic modification produced by the current is reflected in the extraordinary mildness of the winters at this northern latitude, including the growing of winter vegetables and flowers and the presence of subtropical vegetation and lemon trees in southern Devonshire (Devon). Along the western margins of the North Atlantic, however, where the winds are predominantly from the shore, the Gulf Stream has little effect. Halifax, Nova Scotia, nearly 1,000 miles south of Bergen, averages only 23° F (-5° C) during its coldest month.

Additional Reading

Sources on the physical oceanography of the Gulf Stream include Natalia Yurievna Beliakova, Generation and Maintenance of Recirculations by Gulf Stream Instabilities (1999); and J. Hummon, The Anatomy of Gulf Stream Meanders, 2 vol. (1991).

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