Equatorial undercurrent (Cromwell Current)
Corriente submarina ecuatorial (corriente de Cromwell)
- Date
- 1952 · confidence high
- Place
- Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
- Credited to
- Townsend Cromwell and Raymond Montgomery
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A great current flowing east beneath the surface of the equatorial Pacific, opposite to the direction of the wind-driven flow. It was discovered when tuna longlines were found to drift against the surface current.
Buchanan had observed a similar undercurrent in the Atlantic in 1886 and Cromwell described it precisely; he died in 1958 in a plane crash in Peru on his way to join an oceanographic expedition.
What it led to
- understanding of equatorial circulation and El Niño
- fisheries studies in the eastern Pacific