TEMPERATURE 75 



western portions of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans, in which positions the greatest varia- 

 tion of temperature in the surface waters of 

 the globe is found, and in the north-western 

 part of the Black Sea and eastern part of the 

 Mediterranean near Cyprus. 



A range of surface temperature exceeding 

 50° F. is found only in the north-west Atlantic 

 and north-west Pacific. The North Atlantic 

 area is much the larger, extending off the 

 North American coast, to the south of Nova 

 Scotia, seawards almost to longitude 50° W. ; 

 the greatest recorded range within a single 

 two-degree square is 52° (from 28° to 80° F.), 

 while the extreme range within the area is 

 56° (from 27° to 83° F.). The North Pacific 

 area lies off the coast of Asia in the Sea 

 of Japan, in about the same latitude as the 

 Atlantic area (40° N.) ; the greatest recorded 

 range within a single two- degree square is 

 52-7° (from 28-8° to 81-5° F.), and the extreme 

 range within the area is nearly 55° (from 28*8° 

 to 83-7° F.). 



From an oceanographical point of view the 

 areas having a large range of surface tempera- 

 ture are extremely important iii their effect 

 on organisms, and they will be further referred 

 to in later chapters. 



The lowest recorded temperature at the 

 surface of the sea is 26° F. observed in the 



