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About 30 degrees north and south of the equator lie two belts of the ocean where the wind often dies. Sailors called them the horse latitudes, and according to legend, the name comes from what happened to the horses on board when ships stalled there.
The horse latitudes, about 30 degrees north and south of the equator — regions of calm winds and little precipitation. Credit: NOAA.
Why the wind stops
The horse latitudes sit under areas of high pressure in the subtropics. Winds there tend to diverge: some flow toward the poles, as the prevailing westerlies, and some flow toward the equator, as the trade winds. Between them, the high pressure brings calm winds, sunny skies and little or no rain.
The legend behind the name
Ships sailing to the New World often ran into these calm, high-pressure areas and stalled for days or even weeks. Many carried horses to the Americas as cargo. With no wind, the ships could neither sail on nor resupply, and crews often ran low on drinking water. To save what water they had, sailors sometimes threw the horses overboard — and so, the legend says, the horse latitudes got their name.
Sources
Based on "What are the horse latitudes?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence : CC0 1.0 (domaine public) · Adapté de oceanservice.noaa.gov
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