Potential Vorticity and Instability in the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent West of the Galápagos Archipelago

Abstract

The Galápagos Archipelago lies on the equator in the path of the eastward flowing Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). When the EUC reaches the archipelago, it upwells and bifurcates into a north and south branch around the archipelago at a latitude determined by topography. Since the Coriolis parameter (