Smithsonian miscellaneous collections

34;Albatross" in the North Pacific Ocean and in the Bering, Okhotsk, Japan and East Seas, I devoted considerable attention to the question of the salinity of the water the ship passed through. The water will dissolve a certain amount of the glass, thus increasing the density, irregularities from The apparatus used for determining the specific gravity of water was Hilgard's Saline Meter, and the specific gravity was all reduced to the standard temperature of 60°Fahr.

The tables used in this reduction are in the Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for p. Possibly part of the difference is due to the excess salinity taken near the coast in the "Albatross" records.

BRIEF RESUME OF THE CONDITIONS FOUND IN THE NORTH PACIFIC

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T3 SOUTH STOP OF PACIFIC SURFACE WATER — CLARK II The Tsu-Shima Current, progressing to the northeast, reaches the Strait of Tsugaru, through which a large amount of water flows eastward from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean. Continuing further to the northeast, most of what remains of the Tsu-Shima Current flows through the Strait of La Perouse into the Sea of Okhotsk, and a relatively small portion continues northward along the west coast of Sakhalin. The salinity of the surface water in the Straits of La Perouse is greatly reduced by an admixture of fresh water from rain and snow, but at depths greater than 2$ meters it is found to be the same.

The Kuro-Siwo main branch, which follows the southern coast of Japan, passes through van Dieman at high speed. The salinity of the water of the Inland Sea is much less than the salinity of the water in the neighboring parts of the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Japan; Poppy-. The Kuro-Siwo follows the coast of Japan only as far as Cape Inaboie Saki, at which point it turns to the east.

At that latitude, the surface water of Kuro-Siwo turns eastward and has a specific gravity of less than 1.0260. However, water with a specific gravity of I.0260 is found in the Bering Sea and reaches up to 200 meters from the surface. It should be noted that in the Bering Sea the isotherms rise eastward, so that we are justified in believing that the warm water approaches nearer the surface in the eastern part than in the western part.

In the Sea of Japan, heavy water, which is carried by the Tsu-Shima current, turns eastward; but it does not affect Xipon Island at all points as it is deflected by a moderately strong one.

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Below the upper layer of relatively warm water is a cold layer with a specific gravity of 1.0254. Korea Strait and raises the level of the Sea of Japan and the Gulf of Tatarstan above the surface of the surrounding seas much of the water from the Amur River, instead of turning to the right and flowing south as would naturally be expected. , turns to the north, although part flows south along the western coast of the Gulf of Tartar, where it causes a significant decrease in salinity. In this bay, the water of the lower layers near Sakhalin, below 40 meters, has a higher specific gravity than the water near the mainland.

In the upper layers there is no regularity in the variations so that they are probably the result of the action of winds, local currents, tides, etc. Almost the entire central part of the Sea of Okhotsk has a specific gravity between 1.0245 and 1.0250; near the coast the water is generally less salty. In the Bay of Oudsk and near Sakhalin the specific gravity is less than 1.0230, showing the influence of small rivers emptying into the southwestern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, and especially of the Amur.

The deeper water of the Sea of Okhotsk is denser than that closer to the surface; at a depth of 800 meters it has a specific gravity of 1.0261, or the same as that of the water entering through the Strait of La Perouse. Makaroff believed that the water of the Sea of Okhotsk entered that sea through the Strait of La Perouse and not from the Pacific Ocean. Below the Kuril Islands, the surface water is mixed with heavier and much colder water than is found on the coast of Kam-.

14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 60 Sea which is here forced to the surface through the pressure of the

A low-salinity water descends to the south near the coast of Kamchatka and apparently continues down the Kuril chain; further from the coast, the water in the Bering Sea has a salinity of about 1.0250, corresponding to the latitude.

METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS TENDING TO LOWER THE COMPARATIVE SALINITY OF THE PACIFIC

OFF THE CALIFORNIAN COAST

His explanation of the coldness of the coastal strip due to the upwelling of abyssal water assumes that this cold water must also be unusually salty, and therefore that the isohalines must bend abruptly to the north just as the isotherms bend abruptly to the south, while both isotherms and isohalines in winter must take courses more nearly corresponding to the parallels of latitude. My observations on the seasonal variations in the salinity of this coast agree absolutely with his on the temperature. The charts published by Makaroff show that in the central Pacific between 170 and 180 W. is approximately in 42 50' N.; the 1.0250 isohaline is far up in the Gulf of Alaska where it runs parallel to the coast and crosses the 140 W meridian. From these positions there is a slight southerly movement in winter, and a corresponding northerly movement in summer. long., and runs thence almost directly north between the meridians of 125 30' W. which practically coincide with the latter north of 41° N. lat.) for a considerable distance, and finally turns eastward and reaches the coast at Cape Blanco.

The striking feature of this isoha line is the wide seaward bend which, when viewed in its relation to the coastline, reaches its.

THE BERING SEA

Between Kamchatka and the Commander Islands it lies beneath the colder and less salty waters that flow south along the Kamchatka coast. The wide deep channel between the Commander and the western Aleutian Islands allows the passage of large quantities of water from the Pacific Ocean, but the large Andreanof Islands with the narrow channels between them form a barrier so that little can flow through. However, between the Andreanof Islands and Umnak there are again wide open channels, including the Amukta Pass, and these allow the passage of sufficient water to form to the north.

The general shape of the high salinity region in the western Bering Sea suggests that it is not a constant but rather an intermittent flow that remains constant, and one would hardly expect to find a text ending with such long and narrow processes which occur north and again east of the Amukta Pass or fail to reach the coasts of islands where the rainfall is by no means sufficient to keep it away. It is quite possible that in the Bering Sea we have a condition comparable to that shown by Cleve, Ekmann and Pettersson to exist in the Norwegian Sea, and that there is an annual pulsation due to a variation in the height of the level in the north. The Pacific Ocean reaches a maximum in November and a minimum in March, increasing the flow of surface water in the Pacific Ocean through the Aleutian Channels in late spring, summer, and early fall, decreasing in winter and early spring. While the flow of water of comparatively high salinity from the Pacific to the Bering Sea is undoubtedly constant, and towards the western part of the sea is always strong, its eastward expansion is probably governed by an annual variation, expanding and contracting with more or less regularity.

Towards the eastern part of the Bering Sea, the density decreases very slowly: the 1.0240 line crosses the long. South of the Alaska Peninsula, line I.0250 runs in a northeast-southwest direction slightly northwest of lat.

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NARRATIVE

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In the Gulf of Kagoshima we had suffered a lot of loss, while in the Gulf of Kagoshima we found the water similar to that in Toyama Bay, although only one observation (1.0239) was made. In the Dieman Strait and along the coast to the Inland Sea. in the eastern part of the Sea of Japan. The two observations in the Inland Sea showed water with a low salinity (I 1.0241); but south of the l\ii channel we again found about the same salinity as normal for the Japan Current (1.0259).

At No-Shima the salinity rose to 1.0259, and on our journey north along the east coast of Japan to the Strait of Tsugaru we found the density varying between 1.0252 and 1.0258. In Lwanai Bay and in Ishikan Bay on the west coast of Yezo, and west of Rebunshiri Island and southern Sakhalin, salinity was relatively high and decreased further north in the eastern part of the Gulf of Tartary to 1.0256. Commonly in Urakawa and west of Urakawa we found a salinity of 1.0258, southeast of Mororan to Sendai a salinity of 1.0254, while another observation at Sendai yielded 1.0250.

AN OBSERVATION ON THE INTERMINGLING OF RIVER AND OCEAN WATER

COMPARISON OF OUR FIGURES WITH THOSE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

13 SALINITY OF PACIFIC SURFACE WATER CLARK 25 On the west coast of Yezo, where no previous observations have been made, we found water of a somewhat less density than is indicated for the region further from the coast; this would of course be expected and is consistent with conditions on the west coast of Nippon. For the southern and southeastern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, there are no previous records; we found conditions about what one would expect, and consistent with our observations farther north, we found a local area of relatively high salinity near the Kuril chain.

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