Mobile Bay Currents And Crash Debris

It's hard to know exactly where currents will take some of the crash debris. The are three main factors that determine currents in Mobile Bay.

The first is Mobile River, which flows out into the bay. It discharges around 67,000 cubic feet of water per second. That creates a current that moves towards the Gulf of Mexico.

Then there's factor two - tides- which push water both towards and away from land, depending on the time of day.

Finally, factor three is wind. Winds have been out of the south and southeast since the crash. This would tend to carry some debris towards the coast.

But, it's hard to know exactly where any one piece of debris will end up, because all three of these factors interact with each other in a bay that's only 10 feet deep on average.

Some debris could end up washing up on area shores, while other pieces could end up in the Gulf of Mexico.