The Irminger Current is a north
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth conto ...
setting westward off the southwest coast of
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
. It is composed of relatively warm and saline waters from the eastern North Atlantic that are fed by the
North Atlantic Drift. The Irminger Current is part of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. The current is named after Danish vice-admiral (1802–1888).
[Kommandør Axel Fiedler: „Om Irminger Havets og Irmingerstrømmens navn“. ''Søværnsorientering'' Nr. 1, March 200]
Google-HTML-Version
/ref>
See also
* Irminger Sea
The Irminger Sea is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered to the west by southern Greenland, to the north by Iceland and the Denmark Strait, to the east by the Reykjanes Ridge (a northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge), ...
* Ocean currents
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contou ...
* Oceanic gyres
* Physical oceanography
Physical oceanography is the study of physical conditions and physical processes within the ocean, especially the motions and physical properties of ocean waters.
Physical oceanography is one of several sub-domains into which oceanography is div ...
References
Currents of the Atlantic Ocean
{{Marine-current-stub