Outflow Current

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Outflow Current

in oceans and seas, a current caused by a slope in the surface of a sea caused by a local rise or depression from the inflow of sea or river water, atmospheric precipitates, or evaporation. The velocity of outflow currents is proportional to the slope of the surface of the sea. The clearest example of outflow currents in oceans is the Florida Current, which flows from the Gulf of Mexico and gives rise to the Gulf Stream.

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If there is a large density contrast between the outflow and the oceanic water (as there is in the Mediterranean case because it enters the North Atlantic at a comparatively shallow depth, approximately 300 meters, before descending to about 1,000 meters), then the outflow current will accelerate to higher speeds, which causes more intense mixing and increased loss of density.

Dynamics and modeling of marginal sea outflows

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