On the Sources of North Atlantic Deep Water

Abstract

Because the volumetric census of deep and bottom water in the North Atlantic Ocean consists of three isolated linear ridges along which heat and salt flow through the main volumetric mode (and point of intersection), it is possible to deduce the expected ratio of heat flux and ratio of salt fluxes measured in the Denmark Strait overflow off Greenland and in the Antarctic Bottom Water near the equator. The weakly stratified layers of upper North Atlantic Deep Water fall on the nearly linear ridge at temperatures above that of the mode. There is an incompatibility between observed ratio and deduced ratio. It is predicted that a remeasurement of the flux of Antarctic Bottom Water near the equator will show that the previous determination of 4°N is unrepresentatively low.