THE GULF STREAM

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 December 1934, Page 12

THE GULF STREAM

DECLARED A MISNOMER. The Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory of Yale University, after two years of research, has found that the waters of the Gulf Stream do not originate in the Gulf of Mexico, as is popularly believed, and as a result points out that the name “Gulf Stream” is a misnomer. Announcement of this fact was made by Professor Albert E. Parr, scientific director of the Yale oceanographic expeditions.

In the winter of .1932 the Yale oceanographic expedition on the Mabie Taylor, with the co-operation of Drayton Cochran, Yale. 1932, of New York City, owner and master of the yacht, endeavoured to make the first oceanographic survey of the Gulf of Mexico so far on record. The many observations made during his survey have subsequently been analysed in the Bingham Laboratory at Yale, and according to Professor Parr, the work has now progressed far enough to make it possible to say that the upper layers in the Gulf of Mexico are made of water quite different from that of the upper layers of the Caribbean. “This Gulf of Mexico water* seems to enter into relatively very little exchange with the waters of the surrounding seas, and generally contributes little or nothing to ithe waters of lhe Gulf Stream,” said Professor Parr. “Thus, in February, 1932, the waters flowing north through the Yucatan Channel reached the Straits of Florida without having suffered any perceptible change in their character during their flow through the south-eastern corner of the Gulf of Mexico and with- 1 out any evidence of any Gulf of Mexico water having been added to the current.

“The observations made by the Yale oceangraphic expedition, therefore, provide evidence to prove the theory already advanced by ’Danish investigators, by speculative deductions from observations of the entrance of the Gulf alone, that the socalled Gulf Stream simply takes - the shortest possible route from the Yucatan Channel to the Straits of Florida along the north coast of Cuba, carrying chiefly or exclusively waters brought directly from the Caribbean, with little or no contribution from the Gulf of Mexico.

INDICATE GREATER CHANGES. “The popular name of the Gulf Stream is, therefore, certainly a misnomer, and should be replaced by a more suitable designation, such as, for instance, the term ‘Florida Current,’ which is now gaining wider and wider usage among oceanographers and nautical people. Perhaps ‘Caribbean Current’ would really be the most fitting. “Without affecting the validity of the general conclusion just mentioned —that the Gulf of' Mexico does not, as a rule, contribute significantly to the waters of the Florida current—comparisons with observations in the Straits of Florida made on other occasions, particularly in connection with the oceanographic survey of the Cen- ' tral American seas now carried on i jointly by the Yale University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, do show that some Gulf water may at times find its way into the Straits of Florida in highly variable amount. I “Although these occasional contribu-I tions from the Gulf of Mexico, so far as observations go, are always far

from reaching an importance comparable with that of the water masses carried 'directly to the Straits of Florida from the Yucatan Channel and the Caribbean, the presence and absence of these contributions and the variations in their amount may nevertheless be of great significance to us as possible symptoms of greater changes of far-reaching effects in the oceanic circulation.”

The Yale Oceanographic Expedition in 1932 also discovered great seasonal changes taking place within the Gulf of Mexico itself during the four months’ period of the survey. For these reasons the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory at Yale, in co-op-eration with the Woods Hole institution, is now considering the possibility of making observations of these waters at all seasons of the year to determine the range and nature of these variations and their possible relations’ to other plenomena of greater importance.