More commonly used to describe the way the mammalian intestine or uterus might turn back on itself, retroflection was first used in an oceanographic sense in 1970 by South African oceanographer Nils Bang, to describe the Agulhas Current[1] which curves on itself at the southern tip of Africa to become the Aghulhas Return Current.
Bang's research, through the University of Cape Town, was done on a limited budget and with rudimentary equipment,[3] yet his studies using closely spaced bathythermograph readings, were later corroborated by satellite thermal imagery.
The NBC sheds large anticyclonic rings that move northwestward along the continental break.
It is estimated that up to 85 Sv (Sverdrups) of the net transport is returned to the Indian Ocean through the retroflection.
Along with direct branch currents, this leakage takes place in surface water filaments, and Agulhas Eddies.