The East Madagascar Current is an oceanic flow feature near

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It flows southward from 20°S on the east side of Madagascar to the southern limit at

Cape Saint Marie Cape Sainte Marie ( mg, Tanjona Vohimena; french: cap Sainte-Marie), formerly known as Cape Romain and Cape St. Mary, is the southernmost point of Madagascar. It is situated in the Androy Androy is the most southerly Regions of Madagascar, reg ...

and subsequently feeds the

Agulhas Current The Agulhas Current () is the western boundary current of the southwest Indian Ocean. It flows south along the east coast of Africa from 27°S to 40°S. It is narrow, swift and strong. It is suggested that it is the largest western boundary curren ...

. Its flow is complicated by large

cyclonic In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

and anticyclonic

eddies In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object. Fluid beh ...

. The East Madagascar Current has a controlling role in the

western boundary current Boundary currents are ocean currents with dynamics determined by the presence of a coastline, and fall into two distinct categories: western boundary currents and eastern boundary currents. Eastern boundary currents Eastern boundary currents are ...

of the southwest Indian Ocean together with the

Mozambique Current The Mozambique Current is an ocean current in the Indian Ocean, usually defined as warm surface waters flowing south along the African east coast in the Mozambique Channel, between Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. The classical definitio ...

. The mean speed of the East Madagascar Current varies between with a peak in spring and the lowest point in summer. It creates a high-pressure area and affects the

Indian Monsoon The Monsoon of South Asia is among several geographically distributed global monsoons. It affects the Indian subcontinent, where it is one of the oldest and most anticipated weather phenomena and an economically important pattern every year fro ...

. The East Madagascar Current is intense and narrow and retroflects into the central Indian Ocean south of Madagascar similarly to the Agulhas Current south of South Africa.

References

; Notes ; Sources * * Currents of the Indian Ocean Geography of Madagascar {{Marine-current-stub

See also

References