80 



The Sea-water and its Physical and Chemical Properties 



deeper layers (see Fig. 41). This apparently almost universal phenomenon may be due 

 partly to the slower renewal of the water in the layer next to the bottom and partly 

 to the gradual decomposition of material, not easily oxidizable, which with the shells 

 and skeletal parts of organisms forms the sediments of the bottom and makes possible 

 the formation of carbon dioxide in the bottom layer. This bottom layer with a definite 

 increase is particularly well developed and sharply separated from the upper layers in 

 the western half of the South Atlantic in the area of Antarctic bottom water (see Fig. 

 43). 



The carbon dioxide system between the ocean and the atmosphere (BuCH, 1942). 

 The state of equilibrium at the surface of the sea between the ocean and the atmosphere 



9(r 80" 70" 6(r 50" <tO" 30* 20* 10° 0' 10* ZtT ZV hV 50* E 



Fig. 43. Distribution of carbon dioxide pressure (10"^ atm) at the sea bottom (below 

 4000 m) (according to Wattenberg). 



