Ventilation Mechanisms of Deep Water in the Sulu Sea

DOI HANDLE Web Site Open Access
  • Yanagi Tetsuo
    Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University
  • Miyamoto Hideki
    Department of Earth System Science and Technology, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University
  • Gamo Toshitaka
    Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo
  • Hasumoto Hiroshi
    Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo

Search this article

Abstract

Ventilation mechanisms of the deep water in the Sulu Sea, which is a deep marginal sea (maximum depth of about 5,000 m) with a shallow sill (depth of about 400 m) at low latitude in the western Pacific Ocean, was discussed based on the analysis of historical data and a simple numerical experiment. The observed changes in vertical profiles of potential water temperature, salinity and potential density between 1996 and 2002 in the deepest part of the Sulu Sea were well reproduced by a simple numerical experiment. The heavy water mass was uplifted from the lower layer near the Mindoro Strait in the South China Sea due to the development of an anti-cyclonic gyre and the passing of a typhoon in autumn, and subducted from 400 m depth of the South China Sea to 5,000 m depth of the Sulu Sea in 5 days. The terrestrial heat flow from the sea bottom played an important role in the ventilation of deep water in the Sulu Sea. The average residence time, up to about 300 years, of deep water in the Sulu Sea was explained by the large vertical diffusivity of 10 cm^2 s^<-1> in the deep water of the Sulu Sea, which might be resulted from the propagation of internal wave energy from the upper layer.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top