The Gulf Stream is a warm ocean current in the North Atlantic which begins south of the Florida peninsula and then flows north and northeastward. In a broad sense, the term “Gulf Stream” refers to the large system of warm currents that extend for 10,000 km from the shores of the Florida peninsula to the Spitsbergen Island, which lies to the north of Norway. The Gulf Stream itself begins in the southern part of the Straits of Florida as the outflow current of the Gulf of Mexico. Then it joins the Antilles current, flowing northward. North of Cape Hatteras, which is on Hatteras island off the coast of North Carolina, the Gulf Stream veers northeastward into the Atlantic Ocean, where it gives off its first branch, which is the Canary Current that flows eastward in the direction of the Canary Islands.
At the level with Newfoundland, the Gulf Stream becomes the North Atlantic Drift, which veers eastward across the Atlantic, flowing almost in a straight line towards the western coasts of Europe. However, it changes course again to travel in a northeasterly direction, flowing near the coast of Ireland and Scotland. As it moves in a northeasterly direction, it flows off the coast of Norway until it reaches the Spitsbergen Island and the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya. Since the North Atlantic Drift is a warm ocean current, it exerts great influence on the climate of the British Isles. The Gulf Stream carries a great deal of warmth and salt. The average annual surface water temperature is 25°-26° C, and the salinity is 36.2–36.4 parts per thousand (‰). At a depth of 400 m, the temperature is 10°-12°C. Maximum salinity (36.5‰) has been recorded at a depth of 200 m.
At the beginning the Gulf Stream flows north at a speed of 6 km/hr (sometimes up to 10 km/hr) along the edge of the continental shelf of North America. At Cape Hatteras the current turns to the northeast toward the Grand Banks, and its speed decreases to 3–4 km/hr. In the south the Gulf Stream is 75 km wide, and at Cape Hatteras it is 110–120 km wide. The depth of the flow is 700–800 m. As the Gulf Stream moves, it forms numerous meanders, and whirlpools develop in the current itself. The Gulf Stream is caused by the trade winds, which drive water across the Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico and by the resulting significant difference in the levels of the Gulf of Mexico and the adjacent portion of the Atlantic. On entering the ocean the rate of the current is 25 million cu m per sec (2,160 cu km per day)—20 times the discharge of all the world’s rivers. In the ocean the Gulf Stream joins the Antilles Current, and its rate increases, reaching 82 million eu m per sec at 38° N latitude.
The system of the warm Gulf Stream currents has a great effect on the hydrological and biological characteristics of the seas and the Arctic Ocean as well as on the climate of the European nations bordering the Atlantic Ocean. The masses of warm water heat the air passing over it, and this air is carried by the westerly winds over Europe. The deviations in air temperature from the mean latitudinal values in January reach 15°-20° C in Norway and more than 11° C in Murmansk.
