3B Cape Hatteras/Cape Cod 



Charles S. Yentsch 



Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences 

 West Boothbay Harbor, Maine 



Mesoscale eddies are common features of the Gulf Stream System, 

 especially in the region north of Cape Hatteras. These eddies or Gulf 

 Stream rings, as they are often called, form from extensive meanders of the 

 Gulf Stream System as a whole. Such meanders at times close, pinching off 

 portions of the water masses on either side of the stream. The eddies 

 approach being in geostrophic balance and continue to rotate in a manner 

 not unlike the parent flow of the Gulf Stream. Eddies that become 

 entrained in the slope waters contain a warm core of Sargasso Sea water 

 and are referred to as warm-core rings, while eddies that reside in the 

 Sargasso Sea contain a cold core of slope water and are designated cold- 

 core rings. 



41 



