Introduction to the Gulf Stream

The ocean current popularly known as the Gulf Stream, or the North Atlantic Current or Conveyor, imports heat into the north Atlantic and warms the climate of Europe to a level one would not otherwise find at these latitudes. This very large circulation pattern is like a slow drifting of huge volumes of water.

To give the reader a rough idea how this current runs, we can say that the Gulf Stream starts in the warm waters between the continents of South and North America. The warm waters cross the relatively cold Atlantic Ocean where it splits in two. One branch flows south along the western coast of Africa. The other follows the European west coasts, northward past Britain and Norway, before cooling down in the Arctic Ocean. From there the current returns south along the east coast of Canada and the USA, before starting the “loop” over again.

Some scientists are currently worrying about the fate of the Gulf Stream in a warming world.
In this simplified introduction we show you why.