OCR Text |
Show Gulf Stream Holds Secrets Great Warm Current Shifts Course Often Ocean explorers are discovering new secrets of the Gulf Stream, centuries after It first caught the ships and imaginations of seafarers. Only recently have scientists proved that the great warm current wanders, sometimes shifting course by hundreds of miles in response to unknown pressures. East of Newfoundland's Grand Banks, the Woods Hole (Massachusetts) (Massa-chusetts) Oceanographlc Institution sent its , research ship "Albatrbss III" last summer to Investigate the fingers of warm water which curl away toward Iceland, Scandinavia, the British Isles and continental Europe. The five-months cruise may determine whether the Gulf Stream actually branches, or if it consists instead of several currents side by side. Driven by the winds, turned by the spinning earth, the watrs of the North Atlantic slowly revolve, always clockwise as viewed from above. A great swath of tropical water pouring north from the tip of Florida forms the western rim of this giant wheel. Behind It, trade winds pile Caribbean Carib-bean Sea waters through the Yucatan Yu-catan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, Mex-ico, raising it approximately seven Inches higher than the level of the Atlantic Ocean off tho east coast of Florida. |