Antilles Current Antilles Current The Antilles Current is a highly variable surface ocean current of warm water that flows northeasterly past the island chain that separates the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The current results from the flow of the Atlantic North Equatorial Current. This current completes the clockwise- cycle or convection (North Atlantic Gyre) that is located in the Atlantic Ocean. It runs north of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba, but south to the Bahamas, facilitating maritime communication from across the Atlantic into these islands' northern coasts, and connecting to the Gulf Stream at the intersection of the Florida Strait.
Opening of the North Atlantic Ocean The final major phase of breakup occurred in the early Cenozoic, as Laurentia separated from Eurasia. As the two plates broke free from each other, the Atlantic Ocean continued to expand. The Iceland plume is a mantle plume under Iceland that carries hot material from the deep within Earth's mantle upwards to the crust. The rising hot material weakens the lithosphere, making the separation of plates easier. The flow of hot plume material creates volcanism under the continental lithosphere. Iceland extends across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a divergent plate boundary, and it separates the Eurasian and North