KEY POINTS:
New Zealand and Australian researchers yesterday sailed from Port Chalmers into the Southern Ocean to measure the powerful Antarctic circumpolar current.
The current has been compared to a giant aquatic conveyor belt 200km to 1000km wide and 24,000km long that flows from west to east around the icy continent, driven by the winds that circle Antarctica.
The world's strongest ocean current - really a series of linked currents - takes three years to complete its journey around Antarctica, and the scientists are interested in the interchange of waters between the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean basins.
"We want to pin down as much as possible how large the flow is past New Zealand," said expedition leader, Mike Williams. "It has been estimated that this current is 110 to 150 times larger than all the water flowing in all the rivers of the world."
The scientists will drop nine strings of current meters at various depths to gather data for at least a year.
- NZPA
