Have
you ever watched how the current rushes around a large
rock in a swiftly moving stream. On either side of
the rock the current rushes faster while behind it,
the current eddies and slows. A small wake is formed.
But the disturbance is short-lived. Only inches beyond,
the water hurries on downstream, as if the rock had
never been there. Now imagine this that the small
wake produced by the rock, instead of dissipating,
forces part of the stream to reverse course. Backwards
moving water rushes toward the rock. Researchers have
learned that the Hawaiian Islands produce exactly
this effect in the Pacific Ocean.
The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of volcanoes reaching
31,000 feet from the oceans floor to over 13,000 into
the sky. Like a rock in the middle of a stream, the
Hawaiian Islands sit in the middle of the deep Pacific
Ocean. The islands are the only impediment in the
way of North Equatorial Current and the east west
Trade Winds. Racing from the Americas to Asia the
current and the winds are split by this tiny chain
of volcanoes. The speed of the current and force of
the unrelenting winds flowing into and around the
Hawaiian Islands causes a huge wake on the lee side
of the chain. In turn, this wake creates a backward
flowing counter current from west to east for thousands
of miles, known as the Hawaiian Lee Counter Current.
This counter current brings with it warm water and
air from the west.
What makes Hawaii different is two things: First,
where most islands are buffeted by winds that shift
this way and that, depending on the season, the Hawaiian
Islands sit in the midst of the Trade Winds, which
blow steadily west all year round. Second, the water
beneath those winds grows warmer the farther west
you go. The counter current carries some of that warm
water back to Hawaii. It is on the lee side of the
islands that great bait schools and large predators
are mostly found. |
