The outflow of Weddell Sea Bottom Water and Antarctic Bottom Water formed in the Weddell and Ross Seas is a major source of oceanic deep water and changes affecting the formation of these water masses are liable to have an effect on the circulation of deep water globally.
22.
Evidence indicates that Antarctic bottom water production through the Holocene ( last 10, 000 years ) is not in a steady-state condition, that is to say that bottom water production sites shift along the Antarctic margin over decade to century timescales as conditions for the existence of polynas change.
23.
The resulting Antarctic Bottom Water ( AABW ) sinks and flows north and east, but is so dense it actually underflows the NADW . AABW formed in the Weddell Sea will mainly fill the Atlantic and Indian Basins, whereas the AABW formed in the Ross Sea will flow towards the Pacific Ocean.
24.
Common water masses in the world ocean are : Antarctic Bottom Water ( AABW ), North Atlantic Deep Water ( NADW ), Circumpolar Deep Water ( CDW ), Antarctic Intermediate Water ( AAIW ), Subantarctic Mode Water ( SAMW ), Arctic Intermediate Water ( AIW ), the central waters of various oceanic basins, and various ocean surface waters.
25.
This cools the water down enough to where it is capable of dissolving more gasses and minerals, causing it to become very dense in relation to lower latitude waters, which in turn causes it to sink to the bottom of the ocean, forming what is known as North Atlantic Deep Water ( NADW ) in the north and Antarctic Bottom Water ( AABW ) in the south.
26.
For example, in 1969 scientists from the Universities of California, Los Angeles ( USA ), and the US Coast Guard Oceanographic Unit studied the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, the population density and diversity of the deep sea benthos of the Weddell Sea, the population dynamics of Antarctic seals and sedimentation processes in the Weddell Sea and carried out physical, chemical and photographic oceanographic surveys.
27.
CDW, the greatest volume water mass in the SO, is a mixture of North Atlantic Deep Water ( NADW ), Antarctic Bottom Water ( AABW ), and Antarctic Intermediate Water ( AAIW ), as well as recirculated deep water from the Indian and Pacific Oceans ( e . g ., W�st 1935; Callahan 1972; Georgi 1981; Mantyla and Reid 1983; Charles and Fairbanks 1992; You 2000)
