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Canary Current facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The Canary Current is a wind-driven surface current that is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. This eastern boundary current branches south from the North Atlantic Current and flows southwest about as far as Senegal where it turns west and later joins the Atlantic North Equatorial Current. The current is named after the Canary Islands. The archipelago (group of islands) partially blocks the flow of the Canary Current (Gyory, 2007). This wide and slow-moving current is thought to have been exploited in the early Phoenician navigation and settlement along the coast of western Morocco. The ancient Phoenicians not only exploited numerous fisheries within this current zone, but also established a factory at Iles Purpuraires off present day Essaouira for extracting a Tyrian purple dye from a marine gastropod murex species (Hogan, 2007).

Images for kids

  • AFR V3 D029 Atlantic Winds and Currents

    The vertical Canary Current

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Corriente de las Islas Canarias para niños

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