Deep Water Mass Circulation in the Alboran Basin: Measurements - August to November 1983. Alboran III

摘要

Interaction between (3) different water masses, the Atlantic, Levantine and Deep Western Mediterranean water, causes complicated flow patterns in the deep water circulation of the western Alboran Sea. Floats and current meters deployed in the northern and the central western Alboran displayed slow and variable current speed. Floats deployed on the Moroccan continental sloped moved swiftly along the slope towards Gibraltar with accelerating speed, and then passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic. Upward bending of isolines across the Moroccan continental slope extended from Gibraltar to 3 deg 20 min W, and were strongest in the western Alboran Sea. Deep Western Mediterranean water was observed at a depth of less than 300 m near the sill, indicating passage of this water from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Levantine water mass was concentrated in the central Alboran, turning southward near latitude 4 deg 40 min but not crossing the Moroccan continental slope.