Temperature and salinity

Temperature

The oceans tend to be stratified, the principal factor being temperature; the bottom waters of the deep parts are intensely cold, with temperatures only slightly above freezing.

The surface zone, where temperature variations are perceptible, is between 330 and 1,000 feet (100 and 300 metres) thick. It is more compressed in the temperate eastern Pacific, along the coasts of North and Central America, where cold water appears at a shallower depth compared with the central and western Pacific.

Ocean temperatures in the North Pacific tend to be higher than those in the South Pacific because the ratio of land to sea areas is larger in the Northern Hemisphere and because Antarctica and the Southern Ocean also influence water temperature.

The mean position of the thermal equator (the line on the Earth on which the highest average air temperatures are found; the line migrates latitudinally with the changing angular distance from the Equator of the Sun) in the Pacific, although it lies in the Northern Hemisphere, is nearer to the geographic equator than in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

There is a pronounced difference in temperature and salinity between the surface and deep zones of the Pacific. The deep zone, which contains about 80 percent of the ocean’s volume, has relatively stable temperature and salinity patterns; its average temperature is 38.3 °F (3.5 °C).

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Water and its Varying Forms

Salinity

The salinity patterns of the surface waters of the Pacific are influenced largely by wind and by precipitation and evaporation patterns. The waters within the belt of calm and variable winds near the Equator have lower salinities than those in the trade-wind belts. In the equatorial belt, relatively large amounts of rain fall and little evaporation occurs, both because of low wind speeds and because of the generally cloudy skies; salinity in the equatorial belt runs as low as 34 parts per thousand.

The highest surface salinities in the open Pacific occur in the southeastern area, where they reach 37 parts per thousand; in the corresponding trade-wind belt in the North Pacific, the maximum salinity seldom reaches 36 parts per thousand. Pacific waters that approach 60° S have salinities of less than about 34 parts; the lowest salinities—less than about 32 parts—occur in the extreme northern zone of the Pacific.

The heavy rainfall of the western Pacific, associated with the monsoons of the region, gives rise to relatively low salinities. Seasonal variations are significant in the western Pacific as well as in the eastern Pacific, caused by seasonal changes in surface currents.

Surface currents

Pacific trade winds drive surface waters toward the west to form the North and South Equatorial currents, the axes of which coincide with latitude 15° N and the Equator, respectively. Squeezed between the equatorial currents is a well-defined countercurrent, the axis of which is always north of the Equator and which extends from the Philippines to the shores of Ecuador.

The major part of the North Equatorial Current swings northward in the vicinity of the Philippines to form the warm Kuroshio (also called the Japan Current). To the east of Japan the Kuroshio swings eastward to form the Kuroshio Extension. The branching of this current in the region of 160° E results in the movement known as the North Pacific Current. The surface waters of the Bering Sea circulate in a counterclockwise direction. The southward extension of the Kamchatka Current forms the cold Oya Current, which flows to the east of the Japanese island of Honshu to meet the warm Kuroshio waters in the vicinity of 36° N. The cold, southeast-flowing California Current forms the eastern segment of the returning branch of the North Equatorial Current system.

The main part of the South Equatorial Current divides into three large branches as it flows westward. The two westernmost branches, on reaching the east coast of Australia, swing south to form the East Australian Current, which, becoming the Tasman Current, turns back to the northeast and dissipates west of New Zealand. The easternmost branch flows first to the south, roughly along the 180° meridian, before turning back to the east in the vicinity of 50° S as the warm South Pacific Current; between 80° and 90° W this flow turns northward and then westward as the Mentor Current, the waters eventually returning to the South Equatorial Current. Flowing between Antarctica and the South Pacific Current is the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which constitutes the other portion of the South Pacific circulation system and frames the Pacific Ocean’s border with the Southern Ocean. As it reaches the South American coast in the region of 45° S, one branch flows northward along the coast to form the Peru (Humboldt) Current, and a second branch flows southward to pass through the Drake Passage.

Periodically—usually at intervals of three to four years—an anomaly of ocean currents and climatology called El Niño occurs in the South Pacific. This event is associated with the appearance of unusually warm ocean conditions off the tropical coast of South America and with changes in tropical atmospheric patterns (called the Southern Oscillation) that can adversely affect fishing, agriculture, and precipitation patterns along the west coast of South America. During particularly strong events, El Niño can cause weather anomalies in the equatorial and southern Pacific and in northeastern South America, Asia, and North America.

Deepwater circulation

Observations of temperature and salinity at different levels in the ocean reveal well-defined layers, each forming a water mass distinguished by its own temperature and salinity characteristics.

It appears that the most important influence on the vertical circulation of the Pacific is the cold water generated around the Antarctic continent in the Southern Ocean. This dense circumpolar water sinks and then spreads northward to form the bottom layer of the greater part of the Pacific. It is thought that cold, deep water flows northward in the western Pacific in a relatively well-defined current from the vicinity of Antarctica to Japan. Branches from this deep main stream convey cold water eastward and then poleward in both hemispheres.

Deepwater circulation is influenced by the descent of surface water at zones of convergence of neighbouring water flows. In the Pacific Tropical Convergence, which coincides with the Equatorial Countercurrent, water sinks to a depth of about 300 feet (90 metres) before it spreads laterally. The Pacific Subtropical Convergences are located between 35° and 40° N and S. Water that sinks at the convergences spreads laterally at increasing depths as the distance from the Equator increases. The Antarctic Convergence lies in the zone of the southern westerly winds. A corresponding Arctic Convergence is prominent in the northeastern Pacific.

To compensate for downward-moving water, some water rises at zones of divergence, particularly along the so-called cold-water coasts of both North and South America, where upwelling of cold water is a well-marked phenomenon.