Usage history 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 CurrentJ. R. E. Lutjeharms (2006). Three decades of research on the greater Agulhas Current . Ocean Sci. Discuss., 3, 939–995 which curves on itself at the southern tip of Africa to become the Aghulhas Return Current. Bang , N. D. (1970). Dynamic interpretations of a detailed surface temperature chart of the Agulhas Current retroflection and fragmentation area. South African Geographical Journal, 52, 67–76 Bang credited the inspiration for the metaphor to his wife, Alison Coombe Bang, a nursing sister, who mentioned the term during her midwifery studies. Bang's research, through the University of Cape Town, was done on a limited budget and with rudimentary equipment,Sciendaba, Vol XII No 48, 15 December 1977 yet his studies using closely spaced bathythermograph readings, were later corroborated by satellite thermal imagery. The term was then revivedLutjeharms, J. R. E (1981) Features of the southern Agulhas Current circulation from satellite remote sensing, South African Journal of Science, 77, 231–236, 1981 and is now common parlance among oceanographers. The Agulhas current's retroflection is now key to an understanding of its dynamics. Sciendaba, Vol XII No 48, 15 December 1977
Usage history 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 which curves on itself at the southern tip of Africa to become the Aghulhas Return Current. Bang credited the inspiration for the metaphor to his wife, Alison Coombe Bang, a nursing sister, who mentioned the term during her midwifery studies. Bang's research, through the University of Cape Town, was done on a limited budget and with rudimentary equipment,Sciendaba, Vol XII No 48, 15 December 1977 yet his studies using closely spaced bathythermograph readings, were later corroborated by satellite thermal imagery. The term was then revived and is now common parlance among oceanographers. The Agulhas current's retroflection is now key to an understanding of its dynamics. 
R
CurrentJ. R. E. Lutjeharms (2006). Three decades of research on the greater Agulhas Current . Ocean Sci. Discuss., 3, 939–995
Current
D
, N. D. (1970). Dynamic interpretations of a detailed surface temperature chart of the Agulhas Current retroflection and fragmentation area. South African Geographical Journal, 52, 67–76 Bang
R
revivedLutjeharms, J. R. E (1981) Features of the southern Agulhas Current circulation from satellite remote sensing, South African Journal of Science, 77, 231–236, 1981
revived
D
Sciendaba, Vol XII No 48, 15 December 1977