Leeuwin Current

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Leeuwin Current

Leeuwin Current is a warm ocean current

Ocean current

An ocean current is continuous, directed movement of ocean water. The currents are generated from the forces acting upon the water like the Earth's rotation, the wind, the temperature, salinity differences and the tide....
which flows southwards near the western coast of Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. It rounds Cape Leeuwin

Cape Leeuwin

Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australia , in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the Saint Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south....
to enter the waters south of Australia where its influence extends as far as Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and States and territories of Australia of the same name. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait....
. The West Australian Current and Southern Australian Countercurrent, which are produced by the West Wind Drift on southern Indian Ocean and at Tasmania, respectively, flow in the opposite direction, producing one of the most interesting oceanic current systems in the world.

Its strength varies through the year, it is weakest during the summer months from November to March when the winds tend to blow strongly from the south west northwards.

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Encyclopedia

Leeuwin Current is a warm ocean current

Ocean current

Australia

Cape Leeuwin

Tasmania

Its strength varies through the year, it is weakest during the summer months from November to March when the winds tend to blow strongly from the south west northwards. The time of greatest flow is in the autumn and winter (March to November) when the opposing winds are weakest. Evaporation

Evaporation

Evaporation is the slow vaporization of a liquid and the reverse of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid State of matter spontaneously become gaseous ....
from the Leeuwin current during this period contributes greatly to the rainfall in the south west region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
.

Typically the Leeuwin Current current's speed and its eddies

Eddy (fluid dynamics)

In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object....
are about 1 knot

Knot (speed)

The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour. Its kn abbreviation is preferred by American and Canadian maritime authorities, and by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; however, the kt and kts abbreviations also are used....
(50 cm/s), although speeds of 2 knots (1 m/s) are common, and the highest speed ever recorded by a drifting satellite-tracked buoy was . The Leeuwin Current is shallow for a major current system, by global standards, being about 300 m deep, and lies on top of a northwards countercurrent

Countercurrent

Countercurrent may refer to:*Countercurrent pool*Countercurrent exchange...
called the Leeuwin Undercurrent.

The Leeuwin Current is very different from the cooler, northward flowing currents found along coasts at equivalent latitudes such as the southwest African Coast (the Benguela Current

Benguela Current

The frigid waters of the north-flowing Benguela current move from the western coast of South Africa, Namibia and Angola towards north and northwest up to the line where it joins the southern equatorial current which is already a warm current....
); the long Chile-Peru Coast (the Humboldt Current

Humboldt Current

The Humboldt Current is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north-westward along the west coast of South America from the southern tip of Chile to northern Peru....
), where upwelling of cool nutrient-rich waters from below the surface results in some of the most productive fisheries; the California Current

California Current

The California Current is a Pacific Ocean ocean current that moves south along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia, and ending off southern Baja California....
, which brings foggy conditions to San Francisco; or the cool Canary current

Canary Current

The Canary Current is an ocean current which branches south from the North Atlantic Current and flows toward the south-west about as far as Senegal where it turns west....
of North Africa.

Because of the Leeuwin Current, the continental shelf

Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
waters of Western Australia are warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the corresponding regions off the other continents. The Leeuwin Current is also responsible for the presence of the most southerly true corals at the Abrolhos Islands

Houtman Abrolhos

The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia....
and the transport of tropical marine species down the west coast and across into the Great Australian Bight.

The ‘core’ of the Leeuwin Current can generally be detected as a peak in the surface temperature with a strong temperature decrease further offshore. The surface temperature difference across the Current is about 1°C at North West Cape

North West Cape

North West Cape is a large peninsula of land in the north west coast of Western Australia. Cape Range National Park runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge....
, 2° to 3° at Fremantle and can be over 4° off Albany

Albany, Western Australia

Albany is located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, situated around a port on the southern coast.Its metropolitan area has a population of 25,196 as of the 2006 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state....
in the Great Australian Bight

Great Australian Bight

File:Great Australian Bight map.pngThe Great Australian Bight is a large bight , or open bay located off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia....
. The current frequently breaks out to sea, forming both clockwise and anti-clockwise eddies.

The Leeuwin Current is influenced by El Niño conditions, characterised by slightly lower sea temperatures along the Western Australian coast and a weaker Leeuwin Current, with corresponding effects upon rainfall patterns.

The existence of the current was first suggested by William Saville-Kent

William Saville-Kent

William Saville-Kent was an English marine biologist.Born in Sidmouth, Devon, his childhood was marred by the death of his mother, the murder of his half-brother and conviction of his sister Constance Kent to twenty years in prison....
in 1897. Saville-Kent noted the presence of warm tropical water offshore in the Houtman Abrolhos

Houtman Abrolhos

The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia....
, making the water there in winter much warmer than inshore at the adjacent coast. The existence of the current was confirmed over the years, but not characterised and named until Cresswell and Golding did so in the 1980s.

Leeuwin Current

Further reading

External links