Temperature (top) and salinity (bottom) as functions of latitude and depth in the upper 1500 m of the Pacific Ocean. (The image includes the Arctic Ocean on the extreme right.)

The highest temperature in the tropics is above 28°C. Below 1200 m the temperature is less than 4°C. The permanent thermocline is the depth range of rapid temperature change, which in the tropics is found at 150 - 600 m.

Salinity also displays large changes in the upper 500 m, mainly in response to the precipitation - evaporation balance. In the depth range 800 - 1500 m the salinity is rather uniform at about 34.5 over most of the Pacific Ocean.

Back to Figure 5.2.


© 1996 M.Tomczak, based on OceanAtlas by J. Swift, J. Osborne and E. P. Flinchem.

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