Benthic front and the Yamato Basin Bottom Water in the Japan Sea

Senju, Tomoharu*; Isoda, Yutaka*; Aramaki, Takafumi*; Otosaka, Shigeyoshi  ; Fujio, Shinzo*; Yanagimoto, Daigo*; Suzuki, Takashi  ; Kuma, Kenshi*; Mori, Kosuke*

The detail structure of the Bottom Water in the Japan Sea was revealed by the hydrographic observations. The Yamato Basin Bottom Water (YBBW) exhibits higher temperature, lower dissolved oxygen, and higher nutrients concentrations than those in the Japan Basin Bottom Water (JBBW). Both Bottom Waters meet around the boundary region between the Yamato and the Japan Basins, and form a clear benthic front. It is inferred from the property distributions that the JBBW flowing into the Yamato Basin is trapped by the cyclonic circulation in the basin, and modified to the YBBW in the course of the circulation through the vertical diffusion, geothermal heating and oxygen consumption. The thermal balance of in the YYBW was examined using a box-model. The results show that the effect of geothermal heating has about 70 per-cent of magnitude to the vertical thermal diffusion and both terms cancel the advection term of the cold JBBW from the Japan Basin. The box-model also estimated the averaged residence time for the YBBW was 9.1 years.