The East Korean Current is the left, western branch of the Tsushima Current , which is divided in two by the Tsushima Islands located in the Tsushima Strait .
| East Korean Current | |
|---|---|
 Although the Tsushima current (figure 4) after the branch of the East Korean current is shown by a bold arrow on the map, and the East Korean is not numbered at all, the flow rate of the first is weaker than the second | |
| Ocean | Pacific Ocean |
| Type of | warm |
| average speed | 0.32 km / h |
| Salinity | 34.1-34.4 ‰ |
The waters of the warm and salty East Korean Current spread along the coast of the Republic of South Korea , and then break away from it, leaving the open part of the Sea of Japan at about 38 ° C. w. [one]
This branch of the Tsushima current is distinguished by a greater strength of the current than the other two. In the center of the Sea of Japan, warm waters carried north by the North Korean Current meet with cold ones and form a subarctic front, causing strong fogs . The mixture of cold subarctic and warm subtropical waters does not occur along a narrow line, but in a large frontal zone, which has numerous eddies and jets. At the same time, 80-90% of the currents are pushed by denser and more fresh cold waters back to the south and only about 10-20% penetrate the north and northeast. This explains the fact that the climate in Japan and South Korea is subtropical, while in Russian Primorye it is moderate.
The salinity (34.10-34.40 ‰) and the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water (less than 5 ml / l, respectively) carried by the East Korean current are almost identical to those of the Tsushima current [1] . The temperature of the water flow never drops below +12 ° C. The average width of the stream reaches 50 km.
The highest current velocity was noted in the open sea, where it is most pronounced at depths of up to 100 m. The average current velocity is 9 cm / s (1968). The flow characteristics are variable. Thus, the current velocity is usually much greater in the summer (47 cm / s) than in winter (17 cm / s), but the interannual variability of the indicators is often greater than the intra-annual variability.
The hydrography of the current was studied by Japanese scientists K. Thanioka in 1968 and K. Shuto in 1982.