Nantu cket Sh£al_s, Texas_ Tm%rer_'/^_3 (Figure 6, Table 6) 



The observations at Texas Tower #3, Nantucket Shoals, which began in 

 March afford an interesting comparison with the record from Texas Tower #2 

 at Georges Shoal, From tlarch through mid-July the records run parallel, 

 with Nantucket Shoals temperatures running slightly below those at Georges 

 Shoals. From the end of July through December, however, surface water 

 temperatures at Nantucket Shoals lagged behind those at Georges Shoals by 

 more than 5 F. Bigelow (1927, pp. 594-595) remarks on the comparatively 

 cool water found in August over the shallow broken bottom south of Nantuc!:et 

 and says that probably ''this cold area is separated from the equally low 

 surface temperatures of Georges Bank by a band of warm surface water along 

 the so-called 'south channel'...' Subsequent surveys (unpublished data in 

 files of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) show that these two cool 

 areas are separated, but by a region of even colder water in South Channel 

 in July, August and September. It seems likely, then, that the low 

 temperatures found at Nantucket Shoals represent the western margin of an 

 area of upwelling, and that the southwesterly wind regime which characterizes 

 the summer months in the region drive the v/armed surface water to the 

 northeast along the northern edge of Georges Bank, allowing replacement by 

 deep water from the Gulf of Maine. This is in agreement with drift-bottle 

 studies (Day, 1959) which show that southwesterly winds give an onshore 

 component of movement of surface water south of Nantucket and an accelerated 

 northeasterly movement along the northern edge of Georges Bank. 



SURFACE T, "F 



APR MAY 



AUG SEP 



Figure 6. Nantucket Shoals, Texas Towsr #3, 1958. 



29 



