682 



The Stratospheric Circulation 



of the Atlantic should be of the order of 0-5-2 cm/sec. In order to flow through the 

 distance from 50" S. to the equator, Antarctic waters would thus require about 

 10-30 years and would have lost 40% of its characteristic water properties on reaching 

 the equator. Variations in these properties occurring at a certain moment in the area 

 of formation of the water types could only be noticed in the bottom layers at the 

 equator after appreciably long time and with a considerably diminished intensity. 



WiJST (1957) has recently made a dynamic investigation of the "Meteor" profiles 

 and has thereby extended the determination of the absolute topography of the physical 

 sea level and the isobaric surfaces made by Defant to the layers between 2500 m and 

 the deep-sea bottom. He based his computations on the topography given by Defant 

 for the dynamic reference surface (p. 496) and continued the calculations from this 

 surface to the sea bottom. These topographies were used to determine the velocity 

 components at right angles to the profiles. Figure 322 shows the resultant chart of the 









xS-^S 



i-tW. 





.♦ v^-y 



T ^;^m^u.-. hi::- />:V"7' 



\ *s\ ■'■■ 



Northward current component 

 ^I^Southword current corr.ponent 



■A Axis of Antarctic bottom current 

 — Core of Antorctic bottom water 



75° 60° 45° 30° 15° 0° 6° 



Fig. 322. Current distribution in the Antarctic Bottom Water of the Atlantic Deep Sea (in a 



depth of more than 3500 m) computed from the mass distribution taking as a basis the 



reference level of Defant (according to WiJST, 1957). 



