Jump To:

• 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.

---

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

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Equatorial Current equatorial current

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

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

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 Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)

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 Chater, Arthur G.

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 Chater, Arthur G.

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 Kingsley, Charles

But although there was not a breath of wind, the powerful equatorial current was quietly driving the ships, much faster than the Admiral could have suspected, to the northwest and toward land.

From The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest by Fiske, John

Owing to the difference between the rotatory velocity at the poles and at the equator, the polar current is deflected eastward, and the equatorial current westward.

From COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 by Humboldt, Alexander von

So, with the Snark, the resultant of her smallness, of the trade around into the east, and of the strong equatorial current, was a long sag south.

From The Cruise of the Snark by London, Jack

What he seems to have in mind is the great equatorial current between Africa and the West Indies.

From Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution His Life and Work by Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)