Gradient Currents

currents originating in oceans and seas as a result of differences in water column pressure. These differences in pressure are caused by the driving force of winds on the water, the unequal distribution of the water’s density in a basin or the atmospheric pressure above it, the influx of continental waters or waters from other sources, and so forth. Under the action of the Coriolis force, gradient currents are deflected from the direction of the pressure gradient to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern (the gradient is directed from high pressure to low pressure).