North Atlantic Current of Northwestern Europe. Other branches include the Irminger Current and the Norwegian Current. Driven by the global thermohaline circulation, the North Atlantic Current is part of the wind-driven Gulf Stream, which goes further east and north from the North American coast across the Atlantic and into the Arctic Ocean. The North Atlantic Current, together with the Gulf Stream, have a long-lived reputation for having a considerable warming influence on European climate. However, the principal cause for differences in winter climate between North America and Europe seems to be winds rather than ocean currents (although the currents do exert influence at
Opening of the North Atlantic Ocean American plates. The ages of the earliest volcanic rocks from this plume lie in the late Paleocene, and both sides of the Atlantic Ocean contain these rocks. Since these rocks have been dated to the late Paleocene, this lines up with the time of breakup of the North Atlantic continent, so some think it could have been a contributing factor. This theory views volcanism as the resultant of lithospheric processes rather than heat from the mantle rising up. Instead of heat coming up from deep in the mantle, volcanic anomalies come from a shallow source. Volcanism thus occurs where the