Gigantic current found in Southern Ocean

William Atkins
Monday, 26 April 2010 22:31

Science - Climate

A deep ocean current has been discovered near the Kerguelen plateau in the southern Indian Ocean. The Japanese and Australian discoverers say it is equivalent to the volume of 40 Amazon Rivers.

According to the CSIRO article 'Massive Southern Ocean current discovered,' the researchers described the ocean current as ''¦ more than three kilometres below the Ocean's surface'¦' and ''¦an important pathway in a global network of ocean currents that influence climate patterns.'

The CSIRO media report also reports that the researchers describe it as being 'a volume equivalent to 40 Amazon Rivers.'

The newly discovered ocean current is located near the underwater volcanic igneous province called the Kerguelen plateau, in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, about 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) southwest of Perth, Australia.

The paper describing the recently discovered ocean current has been published in the online version of the journal National Geoscience.

The April 25, 2010 article is titled 'Strong export of Antarctic Bottom Water east of the Kerguelen plateau' (doi:10.1038/ngeo842).

The authors of the paper are: Y. Fukamachi, S. R. Rintoul, J. A. Church, S. Aoki, S. Sokolov, M. A. Rosenberg and M. Wakatsuchi.

Page 2 provides a description made by the group of researchers within the abstract to their paper, along with images of their diescovery.