DOLDRUMS

equatorial regions of light ocean currents and winds within the intertropical convergence zone, a belt of converging winds and rising air encircling the Earth near the Equator. The northeast and southeast trade winds meet there; this meeting causes slow air uplift and produces the doldrums. They occur along the Equator in the Indian and western Pacific oceans and slightly north of the Equator off the African and Central American west coasts. The crews of sailing ships dreaded the doldrums because their ships were often becalmed there; the designation for the resultant state of depression was apparently thus extended to these geographic regions themselves.