JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. VI JULY 19, 1916 No. 13 



OCEANOGRAPHY. — On the temperature of the water below the 

 500-fathom line on the west coast of South and North America. 1 

 Austin H. Clark, National Museum. 



A critical examination of the temperature observations taken 

 by the Albatross in water of over 1000 fathoms in depth between 

 California and the Hawaiian Islands 2 appears to indicate that 

 in the oceanic abvsses of the north Pacific there is a distinct, 

 though slight, rise in temperature along this line from east to west. 



A similar study has been made of all the Albatross records 

 for temperatures below 500 fathoms, 417 in number, from Chile 

 to and including the Bering Sea. The most striking feature of 

 the abyssal temperatures of the eastern Pacific is the very small 

 range of maximum variation (see last column of table), which 

 is much less than in the east Atlantic. 



For water of over 2000 fathoms in depth we have no records 

 south of Mexico; on the southern coast of Mexico the water 

 below the 2000-fathom line is +0.65° (that is, 0.65° above the 

 average temperature for the whole ocean at that depth as given 

 by Murray and Hjort); off central Mexico it is slightly cooler, 

 + 0.17°; off northern Mexico there is almost the same drop, 

 to —0.30°; the next reading, roughly between the Columbia 

 River and southern Alaska, is warmer again, —0.09°, while 

 in the Gulf of Alaska the temperature is nearly intermediate 

 between that off northern Mexico and that off the northwestern 



1 Published with the permission of the Commissioner of Fisheries. 



2 Journ. Wash. Acad. ScL, 6: 175-177. 1916. 



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