Abyssal characteristics of the World Ocean waters
- 標題
- Abyssal characteristics of the World Ocean waters
- 作者
- Arnold W. Mantyla, Joseph L. Reid
- 文件屬性
- 國外期刊
- 知識分類
- 基礎研究
- 出版年
- 1983
- 刊名
- Deep Sea Research Part A. Oceanographic Research Papers
- 點閱數
- 2681
摘要
The abyssal characteristics of the World Ocean, including not only temperature but salinity, density, oxygen, and silica, are displayed on both maps and vertical sections to examine the origins of the waters of some of the major basins. Although the coldest waters that appear at the bottom in each of the oceans have long been known to have come from the Southern Ocean, the characteristics indicate that the major component of the abyssal waters of the World Ocean does not derive directly from the abyssal Antarctic but from the shallower Circumpolar Water (CPW). The CPW is a mixture of Antarctic waters with the warm, saline, oxygen-rich, and nutrient-poor deep waters from the North Atlantic. As the CPW extends northward it is modified by mixing with the overlying waters, which in the North Atlantic and North Indian oceans are more saline and in the North Pacific less saline. Except for the Antarctic area, the northern North Atlantic Ocean is the major source of oxygen to the deep-ocean waters. The abyssal waters of the Northeast Pacific are farthest from regions of ventilation and are the most nearly uniform and may be the oldest of the abyssal waters.