User:Steve Quinn/Western boundary currents

Western boundary currents are surface currents located on the western side of the subtropical gyres. For example, one particularly powerful western boundary current is the Gulf Stream.

Gyres
Gyres are major spirals of ocean-circling currents are and occur north and south of the equator.

Global winds drag on the water’s surface, causing it to move and build up in the direction that the wind is blowing. And just as the Coriolis effect deflects winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere, it also results in the deflection of major surface ocean currents in a clockwise spiral in the Northern Hemisphere (in a clockwise spiral) and in a counter-clockwise spiral in the Southern Hemisphere. These currents do not occur at the equator, where the Coriolis effect is not present.

Characteristics
Western boundary currents are faster than their eastern counterparts, and one of the most rapidly rotating surface currents on the globe.

Gulf Stream
One particularly powerful western boundary current is the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream, paired with the eastern boundary Canary Current, flanks the North Atlantic gyre. The Gulf Stream, also called the North Atlantic Drift, originates in the Gulf of Mexico, exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows the eastern coastline of the United States and Newfoundland. It travels at speeds of 25 to 75 miles per day at about one to three knots (1.15-3.45 miles per hour or 1.85-5.55 kilometers per hour). It influences the climate of the east coast of Florida, keeping temperatures warmer in the winter and cooler than the other southeastern states in the summer. Since it also extends toward Europe, it warms western European countries as well.