The Gulf Stream, located along the eastern coast of the United
States, is a fast, intense current known as a western-boundary
current. These currents are located on the western side of every
ocean basin. The Gulf Stream is a result of the wind pattern
acting on most of the North Atlantic Ocean. The combination of
the Trade Winds (10°- 25°N) blowing to the west and the
Westerlies (35°- 55°N) blowing to the east cause the North
Atlantic to rotate clockwise. This basin wide, clockwise flow is
referred to as the Subtropical Gyre. Because of the Earth's
rotation, the poleward flow in the western Atlantic is
constrained to a narrow current on the western boundary of the
ocean basin. This is the Gulf Stream. While western boundary
currents exist in all the major ocean basins, the two in the
Northern Hemisphere (including the Kuroshio Current in the
Pacific) are better developed and more intense than their
Southern Hemisphere counterparts. Under the Trade Winds the
broad, slow North Equatorial Current flows to the we