The Gulf Stream Moves More Water Than All the World's Rivers

The Gulf Stream is a river within the sea, and a very large one. NOAA’s National Ocean Service states that the Gulf Stream transports an amount of water greater than that carried by all of the world’s rivers combined. NOAA describes it as an intense, warm ocean current in the western North Atlantic Ocean. It moves north along the coast of Florida, turns eastward off North Carolina, and flows northeast across the Atlantic. It is not especially fast. The average speed is four miles per hour, or 6.4 kilometers per hour. The current is fastest near the surface, where the maximum speed is typically about 5.6 miles per hour, and it slows to about one mile per hour as it widens to the north.