Davidson Current

In oceanography, the Davidson Current is a coastal countercurrent of the Pacific Ocean running north along the western coast of the United States from Baja California, Mexico to northern Oregon, ending at about latitude 48°N,[1][2] Its flow is adjacent to the California Current, but it flows north rather than south and hugs the coastline. The current is active year-round at 650 feet (200 meters) below sea level, but surfaces during the winter months, generally from mid-November through mid-February.[1] In these months, northerly winds weaken and are replaced to some extent by southwesterly winds.[3][4]

The Davidson Current was discovered by the American geodesist, astronomer, geographer, surveyor and engineer George Davidson,[5] who was associated with the early California Academy of Sciences (CAS) in San Francisco, California.

  1. ^ a b Final Environmental Statement: OCL Sale No. 48 : Proposed 1979 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale Offshore Southern California. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 1979. p. 77.
  2. ^ "Davidson Current". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  3. ^ C. Reid Nichols; Robert G. Williams (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Marine Science. Infobase Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-4381-1881-9.
  4. ^ Murray D. Dailey; Donald J. Reish; Jack W. Anderson (1993). Ecology of the Southern California Bight: A Synthesis and Interpretation. University of California Press. p. 789. ISBN 978-0-520-07578-8.
  5. ^ Robert L. Smith (1989). Poleward Flows Along Eastern Ocean Boundaries. Springer. p. 19. ISBN 9781461389637. Retrieved 11 September 2019.