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Almeria-Oran Front

Oceans and seas:

Almeria-Oran Front

This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: C Michael Hogan

The Almeria-Oran Front is an oceanic front and an associated sea current that separate the fresher water flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean via the Gibraltar Strait from the more saline Mediterranean Sea water; more properly, the western arm of the Mediterranean Sea here is known as the Alboran Sea. The incoming fresher Atlantic water flows eastward as a jet, breaks into two large eddies of around 150 kilometres in diameter (known as the Alboran Gyre), and then is deflected to the right (the south) by the Coriolis force where it encounters the North African coast and continues flowing eastward as the Algerian Current.

 

Almeria-Oran Front. Source: Hauschildt  et. al. Almeria-Oran Front. Source: Hauschildt et. al.

 

Further Reading

  • Peter Saundry. 2011. Seas of the world. Topic ed. C.Michael Hogan. Ed.-in-chief Cutler J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth
  • Matthias Tomczak and J. Stuart Godfrey. Regional Oceanography: An Introduction. Pergamon, 1994.
  • Marc Hauschildt, Joachim Rinna, and Jürgen Rullkötter, Molecular Indicators of the supply of marine and terrigenous organic matter to a pleistocene organic-matter-rich layer in the Alboran Basin (Western Mediterranean Sea), Zahn, R., Comas, M.C., and Klaus, A. (Eds.), 1999 Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, Vol. 161

Citation

Steve Baum (Lead Author);C Michael Hogan (Topic Editor) "Almeria-Oran Front". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth March 29, 2010; Last revised Date May 14, 2011; Retrieved May 22, 2013 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Almeria-Oran_Front?topic=49523>

The Author

Steve Baum Assistant Research Scientist, Physical Section Department of Oceanography Texas A&M University   ... (Full Bio)

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