117 



is one of the simplest thermal patterns occurring and yet is 

 the one showing the most striking effects of flow resulting 

 from thermal slopes. 



Again in March there was a marked dissimilarity between 

 the surface and subsurface temperature topographies. Whereas 

 in the upper mixed zone there was warm water offshore and 

 adjacent to the coast, with a cooler mass lying between, the 

 subsurface water was more complex in its temperature distri- 

 bution and the cool water was next to the coast (Fig. 54). 

 In this case, the water motion must have been into the bay 

 through the northern portion and out of the bay to the south, 

 almost in complete opposition to the motion in the Surface 

 Water Unit. As noted previously, such a condition is not 

 unique and is to be expected when ocean and meteorological 

 situations combine to give strong thermoclines and definite 

 wind drift patterns in the upper water layers. 



Summer . The summer season, i.e., the months when the 

 near shore waters of Santa Monica Bay are warmer than those 

 offshore, begins in June and extends through October. These 

 are also the months when greater differences are noted between 

 the surface and subsurface water units. The upper layers 

 during this season have dominant flows to the north with a 

 varying degree of fluctuation due to man-made contribution, 

 solar insolation, and wind. The subsurface patterns, on the 

 other hand, indicate northerly drift in two months, southerly 

 drift during another, and drifts in different directions in 

 the other two months. More convergences and divergences occur 

 in the bay waters during these months, and on the whole, the 



