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Two modes of bottom water in the Australian‐Antarctic Basin
Author(s) -
Whitworth T.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2001gl014282
Subject(s) - antarctic bottom water , bottom water , oceanography , structural basin , circumpolar deep water , outflow , geology , fresh water , deep water , seawater , water mass , saline water , salinity , paleontology , north atlantic deep water , geotechnical engineering
Recent data from the deep Australian‐Antarctic Basin show that waters colder than about −0.4°C are fresher by as much as 0.02 than data collected prior to 1994. It is possible that the freshening represents a fundamental change in the sources of bottom water for the basin, but it is more likely that the fresh mode recurs periodically and is underrepresented in the historical database. The freshening may be caused by a change in fresh bottom water input from the Antarctic coast between 120°E – 160°E or by a reduction in the outflow of saline Ross Sea Bottom Water.