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

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

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.

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.

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)