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• Equatorial Current
  Equatorial Current

  noun

  North Equatorial Current.
• equatorial current
  equatorial current

  Either of two oceanic currents (the North and South Equatorial Currents) flowing westward on either side of the equator. The equatorial currents are driven primarily by the easterly trade winds and are separated by a narrower countercurrent flowing eastward along the equator itself. Equatorial currents are relatively shallow, involving the epipelagic zone and part of the mesopelagic zone to depths of less than 500 m (1,640 ft). They are deflected by the continental landmasses in their path, usually splitting into northward and southward flows that feed other ocean currents and form part of the oceanic gyres (large-scale spiral current systems).

Equatorial Current

American  

noun

1. North Equatorial Current.

2. South Equatorial Current.

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equatorial current Scientific  

1. Either of two oceanic currents (the North and South Equatorial Currents) flowing westward on either side of the equator. The equatorial currents are driven primarily by the easterly trade winds and are separated by a narrower countercurrent flowing eastward along the equator itself. Equatorial currents are relatively shallow, involving the epipelagic zone and part of the mesopelagic zone to depths of less than 500 m (1,640 ft). They are deflected by the continental landmasses in their path, usually splitting into northward and southward flows that feed other ocean currents and form part of the oceanic gyres (large-scale spiral current systems).

2. See more at gyre

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Equatorial Current equatorial current

Driven into the South Equatorial Current, one of the ships must have been swept across the Atlantic to the coast of Brazil.

From Time Magazine Archive

It consists of seaweed assembled in that very mild sort of eddy which is developed by the Gulf Stream on the one side and by the Equatorial Current on the other.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Equatorial Current ascends, rushes north to a point about latitude 30 degrees, where, being sufficiently cooled, it swoops down, and continues its Northward rush along the earth.

From The Ocean and its Wonders by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

Temperatures at one of the "Fram's" and one of the "Challenger's" Stations, to the South of the South Equatorial Current 433 14.

From The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-1912 — Volume 2 by Arthur G. Chater

Temperatures at one of the "Fram's" and one of the "Challenger's" Stations, to the South of the South Equatorial Current 14.

From The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-12 — Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Arthur G. Chater

Also, we had to remember the equatorial current, which moves west at a rate of anywhere from twelve to seventy-five miles a day.

From The Cruise of the Snark by Jack London

Conversely, the southerly route by the Azores is best for outward-bound ships; as it escapes most of the Gulf Stream, and traverses the still Sargasso Sea, and even the extremity of the westward equatorial current.

From At Last by Charles Kingsley

Its special home is a broad space of ocean surface between the Gulf Stream and the equatorial current, known as the Sargasso Sea.

From Equatorial America Descriptive of a Visit to St. Thomas, Martinique, Barbadoes, and the Principal Capitals of South America by Maturin Murray Ballou

This might be produced by a change in the conditions of the equatorial current, so that evaporation would be more rapid in the northern Pacific than it now is.

From Nature's Miracles, Volume 1 Familiar Talks on Science—World-Building and Life. Earth, Air and Water. by Elisha Gray

And no doubt he has also noticed that this wind gives rise to the equatorial current which, broad and strong, sets westwards across the Pacific Ocean.

From From Pole to Pole A Book for Young People by Sven Anders Hedin

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