the gulf stream the world's fastest ocean current flows along the western side of this water body
Atlantic ocean
title: Kuroshio Current text: Kuroshio Current The is a north-flowing ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean. It is similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic and is part of the North Pacific ocean gyre. Like the Gulf stream, it is a strong western boundary current. It begins off the east coast of Luzon, Philippines, Taiwan and flows northeastward past Japan, where it merges with the easterly drift of the North Pacific Current. It is analogous to the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, transporting warm, tropical water northward toward the polar region. It is sometimes known as title: Physical oceanography text: Flow in the real ocean is more complex, but the Gulf stream, Agulhas and Kuroshio are examples of such currents. They are narrow (approximately 100 km across) and fast (approximately 1.5 m/s). Equatorwards western boundary currents occur in tropical and polar locations, e.g. the East Greenland and Labrador currents, in the Atlantic and the Oyashio. They are forced by winds circulation around low pressure (cyclonic). The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension, North Atlantic Current, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows title: Gulf Stream text: ridge's western periphery and the increased relative vorticity of northward moving water, transport is balanced by a narrow, accelerating poleward current, which flows along the western boundary of the ocean basin, outweighing the effects of friction with the western boundary current, known as the Labrador current. The conservation of potential vorticity also causes bends along the Gulf Stream, which occasionally break off due to a shift in the Gulf Stream's position, forming separate warm and cold eddies. This overall process, known as western intensification, causes currents on the western boundary of an ocean basin, such as the Gulf Stream, to title: Gulf Stream text: Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about , it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current, title: Gulf Stream text: chart is an illustration of the migration pattern of herring and not an ocean current. The Gulf Stream proper is a western-intensified current, driven largely by wind stress. The North Atlantic Drift, in contrast, is largely thermohaline circulation–driven. In 1958 the oceanographer Henry Stommel noted that "very little water from the Gulf of Mexico is actually in the Stream". By carrying warm water northeast across the Atlantic, it makes Western and especially Northern Europe warmer than it otherwise would be. A river of sea water, called the Atlantic North Equatorial Current, flows westward off the coast of Central Africa. When