Algerian stream
The Algerian Current is the dominant surface current in the western Mediterranean . It flows along the North African coast from west to east.
The river is created about 150 kilometers east of the Strait of Gibraltar from the water that flows from the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. For the first 150 kilometers, the entire surface water consists of Atlantic water, at this point the Almería-Oran Front separates Atlantic water and Mediterranean water . The Atlantic water then flows as an Algerian stream along the North African coast to the east. The current is about 300 kilometers wide and less than 30 kilometers wide and transports about 0.5 Sverdrup at an average speed of about 0.4 m / s . At the border between the western and eastern Mediterranean, the current splits, with the smaller part flowing north into the Tyrrhenian Sea , the larger part as the Ionian-Atlantic Current further east into the Mediterranean.
With the Atlantic water, the current brings comparatively cold and sweet water into the sea. It is relatively unstable and meandering compared to other major ocean currents . On its south side, eddies that are around 50 to 100 kilometers wide form, slowly rotating clockwise, expanding from west to east and drifting further away from the Algerian current.
Remarks
- ^ A b c Alan R. Longhurst: Ecological geography of the sea Academic Press, 2007 ISBN 0124555217 p. 176
- ↑ Mohammed I. El-Sabh et al .: Physical Processes in Inverse Estuarine Systems in: Alan Ansell and Margaret Barnes: Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review CRC Press, 1997 ISBN 1857287169 p. 28
- ↑ Graham J. Peirce et al .: A Review of Cephalod-Environment Interactions in European Seas in: Vasilis D. Valavanis (ed.): Essential Fish Habitat Mapping in the Mediterranean Springer, 2008 ISBN 1402091400 p. 60