Wave Chasers Map Samoan Passage
5500 meter beneath the sea surface
It is one of the "choke points" in the abyssal circulation. A veritable river of Antarctic Bottom water flows through it on its way into the North Pacific.
"We are at sea on the bathymetry mapping cruise for the Samoan Passage project. The bathymetry is complicated, but so far it looks like our original hypothesis was correct, namely, that much of the flow does in fact go through the main part of the passage" ... more of the Samoan cruise blog ..
The Samoan Passage, 5500 m beneath the sea surface, is one of the "choke points" in the abyssal circulation. A veritable river of Antarctic Bottom water flows through it on its way into the North Pacific. As it enters the constriction, substantial turbulence, hydraulic processes and internal waves must occur - which modify the water.
Since climate models do not do a good job of resolving flows like these, we will take our stable of instruments - moored profilers, conventional current meter moorings, shipboard instruments - and measure the velocity, turbulence, and internal waves in the region. The overall goal is to understand these deep processes and the way they impact the flow, and to develop a strategy for eventually monitoring the flow through the Passage.
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It is one of the "choke points" in the abyssal circulation. A veritable river of Antarctic Bottom water flows through it on its way into the North Pacific.
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