Catamaran Mahana-sailing tours

Currents in Caribbean sea

The ebb tide flows from the Caribbean Sea out into the Atlantic Ocean – not into it.

But be careful: The term "ebb tide" is usually used in connection with the tides in coastal or estuarine areas – there it describes the outflowing water at low tide.

The Caribbean Sea, however, is an open ocean area with constant water exchange, strongly influenced by ocean currents, not primarily by tides. Therefore, the question is probably meant in the sense of: "How does the water flow between the Atlantic and the Caribbean?"

⸻

🌊 What is the actual water flow in the region?

✅ Main current: from the Atlantic into the Caribbean
• The trade winds push Atlantic water through the islands of the Caribbean (especially through the "island passages" such as the Windward Passage or between Cuba and Hispaniola) into the Caribbean Sea.
• The water then flows west through the Caribbean Sea, along Central America.
• It then flows through the Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico.
• From there, it continues through the Florida Strait into the Gulf Stream, which then flows northeast along the US East Coast back into the Atlantic.

⸻

📌 Conclusion:
• 🌊 There is no ebb tide in the classic sense in the Caribbean Sea.
• ✅ The water flows predominantly from the Atlantic into the Caribbean – not out.
• → It is a continuous ocean current, not a periodic tidal current like on a coast.

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karibische_Strö…

How a Gyre Forms

Three forces cause the circulation of a gyre: global wind patterns, Earth’s rotation, and Earth’s landmasses. Wind drags on the ocean surface, causing water to move in the direction the wind is blowing.

Earth’s rotation deflects, or changes the direction of, these wind-driven currents. This deflection is a part of the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect shifts surface currents by angles of about 45 degrees. In the Northern Hemisphere, ocean currents are deflected to the right, in a clockwise motion. In the Southern Hemisphere, ocean currents are pushed to the left, in a counterclockwise motion.

Beneath surface currents of the gyre, the Coriolis effect results in what is called an Ekman spiral. While surface currents are deflected by about 45 degrees, each deeper layer in the water column is deflected slightly less. This results in a spiral pattern descending about 100 meters (330 feet).

Earth’s continents and other landmasses (such as islands) also influence the creation of ocean gyres. The massive South Pacific Gyre, for instance, includes hundreds of kilometers of open ocean. It is bounded only by the continents of Australia and South America, as well as the Equator and powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC).

In contrast, the northern Indian Ocean Gyre is a much smaller ocean gyre. Unlike the South Pacific Gyre, its extent is determined largely by landmasses. The Equator forms its southern boundary, but it is bounded elsewhere by the Horn of Africa, Sri Lanka and the Indian subcontinent, and the Indonesian archipelago.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resour…Read more