HYDROLOGY OF THE BRANSFIELD STRAIT 



27 



February have been replaced by a high salinity and low temperature in November. 

 Thus on the King George Island to Trinity Peninsula line a difference of 0-29 °/ 00 and 

 2-20° C. exists between February and November in the surface water at corresponding 

 stations, WS 385 and WS 479, approximately 24 miles from Trinity Peninsula. In the 

 horizontal sections the conditions at the surface show the same characteristics that 

 prevailed in February when allowance is made for the increased salinity and decreased 

 temperature due to the difference in season. Lighter water is found at the surface at the 

 south-west end of the strait and at stations close to the South Shetland Islands, whereas 

 towards Trinity Peninsula the surface salinity increases and reaches the high value of 

 34-51 °/ 00 at the station nearest the peninsula. The surface temperature shows very 



Fig. 29. Surface density (a ( ): November 1929. 



little variation throughout the strait, the difference between the highest and lowest 

 temperatures recorded amounting to only 0-53° C. 



The vertical sections from King George Island to Trinity Peninsula, Figs. 30-32, 

 show a much greater development of the warm deep water at this end of the Bransfield 

 Strait than in February. In February 1929 the only station on this line with a positive 

 intermediate maximum temperature in this layer was St. WS 382, some 4 miles from 

 King George Island, where a temperature of 0-53° C. was recorded at 400 m. The other 

 stations on the same line in February recorded only traces of intermediate thermal 

 maxima and all of negative temperature. In November, however, on this line, positive 



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