Alaska Current

The Alaska Current is a southwestern warm-water current along the coast of British Columbia and the Alaska Panhandle. The current results from the northward diversion of a portion of the North Pacific Current when that current meets the west coast of the North American continent. It forms a part of the counterclockwise gyre in the Gulf of Alaska. In contrast to typical sub-Arctic Pacific water, Alaska Current water is characterized by temperatures above 39°F (4°C) and surface salinities below 32.6 parts per thousand.

In the northern Gulf of Alaska, the Alaska Current continues into the Alaskan Stream, which begins near Kodiak Island and flows southwestward along the Alaska Peninsula. The Alaska Current produces large clockwise eddies at two sites: west of the Queen Charlotte Islands ("Queen Charlotte Eddy" or "Haida Eddies") and west of Sitka ("Sitka Eddy").

References

"Alaska Current". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 August 2015.

Ocean currents and gyres

Currents

Arctic Ocean	East Greenland North Icelandic Norwegian Transpolar Drift Stream

Atlantic Ocean	Angola Antilles Azores Baffin Island Benguela Brazil Canary Cape Horn Caribbean East Greenland East Iceland Falkland Florida Guinea Gulf Stream Irminger Labrador Lomonosov Loop North Atlantic North Brazil North Equatorial Norwegian Portugal Slope Jet South Atlantic South Equatorial West Greenland West Spitsbergen

Indian Ocean	Agulhas Agulhas Return East Madagascar Equatorial Counter Indian Monsoon Indonesian Throughflow Leeuwin Madagascar Mozambique Somali South Australian South Equatorial West Australian

Pacific Ocean	Alaska Aleutian California Cromwell Davidson East Australian East Korea Warm Equatorial Counter Humboldt Indonesian Throughflow Kamchatka Kuroshio Mindanao North Equatorial North Korea Cold North Pacific Oyashio South Equatorial Tasman Front

Southern Ocean	Antarctic Circumpolar Tasman Outflow

Gyres

Major gyres	Indian Ocean Gyre North Atlantic Gyre South Atlantic Gyre North Pacific Gyre South Pacific Gyre

Other gyres	Beaufort Gyre Ross Gyre Weddell Gyre

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Alaska Current

See also

References