The Basin Waters of the Bransfield Strait

Abstract Hydrographic data were obtained within the Bransfield Strait and adjacent waters during February and March 1975 by R/V Conrad and R/V Melville as part of FDRAKE 75. Within the Strait the circumpolar Deep Water is either missing or its influence is weak. The salinity maximum, oxygen minimum and silicate maximum present in the upper layers of the Strait attenuate toward the east, demonstrating the eastward decrease of Bellingshausen Sea influence. The Strait contains three basins separated from one another by sills less than 1500 m deep and from adjacent ocean areas by depth near or less than 500 m, except for a channel to the northeast of slightly over 1100 m depth. The deep and bottom waters of these basins, with depths to nearly 2600 m, are significantly colder, less saline, higher in oxygen and lower in nutrient concentrations than the deep exterior water adjacent to the Strait. These characteristics confirm Clowes' (1934) contention that the waters of these basins are renewed by local convecti...