Pacific Bottom Water: Penetration east around Hawaii
Abstract
High-precision continuous temperature profiles and detailed hydrographic data from the central North Pacific are interpreted as showing the existence of a narrow eastward bottom current. This current flows along the southern flanks of the mid-Pacific mountains, through a deep passage 10 km wide south of Horizon guyot and on around the southeastern end of the Hawaiian chain. The deviations of the abyssal water temperature profiles from normal adiabatic type to highly subadiabatic are evidence of the continuous input of a cold bottom water layer. Abrupt changes in the vertical gradients of temperature and dissolved constituents mark the boundary between the Bottom Water and the Deep Water.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Geophysical Research
- Pub Date:
- November 1971
- DOI:
- 10.1029/JC076i033p08089
- Bibcode:
- 1971JGR....76.8089E
- Keywords:
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- Oceanography: Circulation;
- Oceanography: Water Masses;
- Pacific Ocean: Oceanography;
- Oceanography: Distributions and water masses;
- Information Related to Geographic Regions: Pacific Ocean