Warm-core eddies in the Gulf of Mexico are like big puddles of warm water circulating clockwise that are formed by the Loop Current, a stream of water from the Caribbean that enters the gulf through the Yucatan Channel, flows north along the west coast of Florida, then turns clockwise and flows south, exiting through the Straits of Florida. About once or twice each year a meander of the Loop Current pinches off, forming an eddy roughly 50 to 250 kilometers in diameter and more than 1000 meters deep.
Eddies travel west across the gulf as they rotate clockwise, completing a rotation about once every ten days. It takes a few months to a year for an eddy to reach the coast of Mexico or Texas in the western gulf. Once warm-core eddies reach the continental slope and begin to interact with the seafloor, they start to disintegrate.
There are several ways to recognize a warm-core eddy. Remote sensing by instruments on satellites detects eddies by differences in radiation leaving the ocean or by differences in ocean height. The center of an eddy is warmer and higher than the water outside the eddy. Drifting buoys traveling in a circular or corkscrew path can also indicate the presence of an eddy.
When the approximate location of an eddy is known, it can be confirmed by a series of temperature and depth measurements from aboard ship. As the ship passes into an eddy, temperature measurements show that the surface layer of warm water is thicker, extending into deeper water than outside the eddy.
[~14K] Eddies form in the Gulf of Mexico when a portion of the Loop Current breaks off and drifts westward.
