Table 1. --Composition of water masses named by Roden and Groves (1959) and illustrated by figures 

 in this paper, in terms of water masses recognized by Wyrtki ( 1967) 



VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTIES 



The station lines shown in figure 1 are 

 approximately normal to the coastline and, 

 on the average, to the flow of water. The ver- 

 tical distribution of four principal properties 

 are considered first--temperature, salinity, 

 thermosteric anomaly (a function of density), 

 and dissolved oxygen. The distribution of 

 temperature, thernnosteric anomaly, and dis- 

 solved oxygen are qualitatively similar; the 

 distribution of salinity is more or less unlike 

 them and, for my purpose, much more infor- 

 mative. As a general rule, however, low tem- 

 peratures are associated with low salinities 

 and high salinities with high temperatures, 

 in the upper layers. The relative depths of 

 Nansen bottles are indicated by black dots 

 in all figures depicting vertical profiles. 



Temperature 



Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9 show the respective 

 temperature profiles of lines 143, 147, 150, 

 and 153 of CalCOFI cruise 6004-B (fig. 1). 

 These profiles share one general property: 

 the thermocline in each is about 100 m. deep 

 at the offshore stations (station 60 at left 

 side of figure 5) and slopes steadily up- 



wards, breaking the surface son-iewhere near 

 the coast (at right side of figures); this inter- 

 section with the surface indicates upwelling, 

 about which more is said later. Also dis- 

 cussed later is the oxygen minimum shown on 

 all temperature and salinity profiles (except 

 line 143, for which the oxygen data were 

 erroneous); this minimunn is a property of 

 Subtropical Pacific Subsurface Water, though 

 its lower boundary may be in Intermediate 

 Water. 



Figure 10 shows the temperature profile 

 across the mouth of the Gulf proper (stations 

 1 to 5). Here the thernnocline is much stronger 

 and shallower, and there is no indication of 

 upwelling. 



The shallow thermocline in the Gulf appears 

 to be superimposed on the deeper thernnocline 

 typical off western Lower California, according 

 to the profile between stations 7 and 22 (fig. 11). 

 The main frontal system (Griffiths, 1963, 1965) 

 shows up between stations 12 and 14. Dotted 

 isotherm contours in figure 11 show a feature 

 between stations 12 and 14 that was found by 

 BT (bathythernnograph) but not by the hydrocast 

 pattern; all profiles were drawn from bottle 

 cast data only. The cool water at stations 

 15 and 20 was evidently upwelled farther north; 

 this phenomenon is discussed later under 

 horizontal distributions. 



