PHYSICAL OCEANOGHAPHY OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



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PROFILES 



Several profiles of the gulf are added, further to illustrate the distribution of 

 temperature in March as exemplified by the year 1920. The first of these, running 

 eastward from Massachusetts Bay to the neighborhood of Cape Sable (fig. 14), shows 

 the spacial relationship between the comparatively high temperature (upward of 4°) 

 in the bottom of the two arms of the basin, below about 120 to 160 meters, the 

 banking up of 4° to 5° water in the eastern side just mentioned, and the colder 

 (0° to 2°) water in the inner part of Massachusetts Bay in the one side of the 

 gulf and along western Nova Scotia in the other. It also affords evidence more 

 graphic than the charts that this warm bottom water, as it drifts in through 



Temperature, Centigrade 



Meter 



Fio. 7.— Vertical distribution of temperature near Mount Desert Island in various months. A, March 3, 1920 

 (station 20056); B, April 12, 1920 (station 20099); C, May 10, 1915 (station 10274); D, June 11, 1915 

 (station 10284); E, June 14, 1915 (station 10286); F, July 19, 1915 (station 10302); Q, August 18, 1915 (station 

 10305); H, October 9, 1915 (station 10328); I, January 1, 1921 (station 10497) 



the Eastern Channel, makes itself felt right up to the surface in the coldest season 

 by temperatures about 1° higher than those either to the west or to the east of it. 

 A much lower temperature in the bottom of the bowl off Gloucester (1.5° to 1.6°) 

 than at equal depths in the neighboring basin (5°) deserves attention as evidence of 

 the efficacy of its barrier rim. Because so protected by the contour of the bottom, 

 the low temperatures of the preceding winter persist until much later in the season 

 in the deeper levels of sinks of this type than in other parts of the open gulf. 



The considerable stratum of water colder than 3° (1.89° to 2.76°) in the mid 

 levels of the west-central part of the basin is made conspicuous on this profile by 



