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Ocean Currents: asked and not asked.
UPSC has asked 12 of these 17. 1 came more than once. 5 have not come yet. Lock the repeated ones first, then read the rest.
First, the concept
Ocean currents are driven by winds, the Earth's rotation and differences in water temperature and salt.
Rule of thumb: in low and middle latitudes, warm currents run along the east coasts of continents and cold currents along the west coasts.
Where a warm and a cold current meet, plankton grows and fog forms: the world's richest fishing grounds (Grand Banks off Newfoundland, waters off Japan).
🔁 Asked again and again (1)
Tap a year to open that solved question.
✅ Asked once (11)
Atlantic Ocean
- Labrador · Cold; meets the Gulf Stream near Newfoundland 1989
- Canary · Cold; off north-west Africa
- Benguela · Cold; off south-west Africa (Namib) 1984
- Brazil · Warm; off eastern South America
- Falkland · Cold; off south-east South America
- North Atlantic Drift · Warm; keeps north-west Europe's ports ice-free 2024
Pacific Ocean
Indian and Southern Oceans
- Agulhas · Warm; off south-east Africa
- Somali · Reverses its direction with the monsoon
❌ Not asked by UPSC yet (5)
Items marked 'asked in UPPCS' have already come in the UP state exam, so examiners do use them.
Pacific Ocean
- California · Cold; off western USA
- East Australian · Warm; off eastern Australia
Indian and Southern Oceans
- Mozambique · Warm; between Mozambique and Madagascar asked in UPPCS
- Antarctic Circumpolar (West Wind Drift) · Cold; circles Antarctica; the largest current asked in UPPCS
- West Australian · Cold; off western Australia
⚠️ Agulhas is warm, Benguela is cold, though both are off southern Africa. Kuroshio is warm and Oyashio cold. The Labrador current is cold.
'Asked' is checked against the solved UPSC questions on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.