ABYSSAL WATER MASS FORMATION OFF THE EASTERN WILKES-LAND COAST OF ANTARCTICA

The area off the eastern Wilkes Land coast between 147 and 162 degrees C has been investigated as a site for the formation of bottom and deep water using seven hydrographic sections obtained in the austral summer 1985. The sections showed that there was high salinity water near the freezing point upon the continental shelf in this region. The deeper shelf water was potentially more dense than the water off the shelf in this region, but a reversely sloping shelf and the Coriolis effect constrain this water from flowing off continuously. Since the sections are very similar to those found in the southern Weddell Sea, it is proposed that the same mechanisms that are probably responsible for shelf-break mixing and bottom water formation in the Weddell Sea also take place here. Most of the water on the shelf above the shelf-break sill depth, while not dense enough to form true bottom water, potentially could mix with the Warm Deep Water and interleave with water off the shelf at intermediate and near-bottom depths. Thus this region may contribute to what is commonly denoted as Antarctic Bottom Water as effectively on an areal basis as the shelf-break region of the Weddell Sea.