116 



Alfred C. Redfield 



The Gulf may be divided into two parts: the Outer Gulf and Calabozo Bay. These 

 regions are separated by a sill with depths of 18 metres, extending along the 71st 

 meridian. West of the sill a basin 28 metres in depth occupies the northern half of 

 Calabozo Bay. East of the sill the bottom of the Outer Gulf slopes downward to 

 provide depths of 40 to 80 metres over a considerable area. Access to the Gulf is 

 probably limited to Caribbean water from depths not greater than 100 metres (Fig. 1). 



The only earlier observations on the Gulf of which I am aware are measurements of 



72° 71° 70" 



Fig. 1. Bathymetric chart of Gulf of Venezuela. Based on H.O. No. 5520 — Depths in metres 



surface salinities across the Gulf in December 1953 by Gessner (1953 b, 1955), and a 

 few records of chlorinity off the entrance to Lake Maracaibo by the Corps of Engineers, 

 U.S. Army (1938). Undocumented statements relative to the water of Lake Maracaibo 

 and its approaches, and on tide levels in the Gulf, are based on information secured 

 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the course of studies which it is 

 expected to publish subsequently. These studies were made for the Creole Petroleum 

 Corporation, which has graciously consented to the use of this information. The 

 outflow of Lake Maracaibo was estimated from climatological data by Douglas B. 

 Carter of the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory of Climatology (Carter, 1954). 

 The greater part of the data to be discussed was secured by the Atlantis between 

 December 7 and 9, 1954. Three sections across the Gulf and two extending seaward 

 from the adjacent capes provide information on the distribution of temperature, 



