RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, VOL. 21, ES3003, doi:10.2205/2021ES000769, 2021
E. G. Morozov, D. I. Frey, V. A. Krechik, M. V. Kapustina, M. N. Pisareva
The bottom waters in the Atlantic Ocean originate from the Weddell Sea. These waters of Antarctic origin flow from the Argentine Basin to the Brazil Basin along three pathways: through the Vema and Hunter channels and over the Santos Plateau. The Vema Channel is a conduit for the coldest and densest Antarctic waters to the north. It is a narrow passage between two terraces with a minimum width of 16 km. The propagation of bottom waters in the deep-water Vema Channel occurs as a well-mixed jet. The coldest part of the flow is displaced to the eastern slope of the deep-water channel due to the influence of the bottom Ekman friction. The second core of the flow is observed in the upper part of the channel over its western slope. This jet was also found in the continuation of the AABW flow at the exit from the Vema Channel. We analyze data over the section across the Vema Channel collected in several years of research from the R/V {Akademik Sergey Vavilov}.
Received 12 April 2021; accepted 3 May 2021; published 20 May 2021.
Citation: Morozov E. G., D. I. Frey, V. A. Krechik, M. V. Kapustina, M. N. Pisareva (2021), Structure of the bottom water flow in the Vema Channel based on the measurements from the R/V
Copyright 2021 by the Geophysical Center RAS.