Ocean gyre

For other uses, see Gyre (disambiguation).
Map showing 5 circles. The first is between western Australia and eastern Africa. The second is between eastern Australia and western South America. The third is between Japan and western North America. Of the two in the Atlantic, one is in hemisphere.
North Atlantic
gyre
North Atlantic
gyre
North Atlantic
gyre
Indian
Ocean
gyre
North
Pacific
gyre
South
Pacific
gyre
South Atlantic
        gyre
Map showing 5 circles. The first is between western Australia and eastern Africa. The second is between eastern Australia and western South America. The third is between Japan and western North America. Of the two in the Atlantic, one is in hemisphere.
World map of the five major ocean gyres

In oceanography, a gyre (/ˈdʒaɪər/) is any large system of circulating ocean surface currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the circulatory patterns from the wind stress curl (torque).[1]

Gyre can refer to any type of vortex in an atmosphere or a sea,[2] even one that is human-created, but it is most commonly used in terrestrial oceanography to refer to the major ocean systems.

  1. ^ Heinemann, B. and the Open University (1998) Ocean circulation, Oxford University Press: Page 98
  2. ^ Lissauer, Jack J.; de Pater, Imke (2019). Fundamental Planetary Sciences : physics, chemistry, and habitability. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1108411981.