Preliminary results of measurements of deep currents in the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

FROM June 18 to August 5, 1968, the STYX expedition of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography made measurements of deep flow in the South Pacific Ocean. As early as 1871 (ref. 1) it had been suggested that the deep and bottom waters of the North Pacific Ocean are not formed by modification of North Pacific surface waters, but have flowed in through the South Pacific from other areas. Wust2 has traced the flow of cold bottom water (deeper than 4,000 m) from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to the western North Pacific; the observed temperature variation beyond was too small to indicate a clear path. Other investigators3,4 have confirmed his results by the distributions of dissolved oxygen and salinity, and some further indirect evidence of a deep strong northward flow across 29°S has recently been submitted5,6. © 1969 Nature Publishing Group.