We report low temperature gradients (from 60% to 12% of geothermal), and extrapolated temperatures offset from modern bottom water temperatures, in sediments from the central Scotia Sea. We examine possible causes, bearing in mind similar anomalous measurements 18 years previously, attributed at the time to instrumental error. Small temperature offsets (¿0.1 ¿C) may reflect short-term bottom temperature variation within eddies of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Low sediment temperature gradients may be caused by horizontal advection of cold water within the upper oceanic basaltic layer (documented in younger ocean floor elsewhere), or by northward encroachment of colder bottom waters (from the Antarctic Peninsula shelf or Weddell Sea) for several years prior to measurement. ¿ 2000 American Geophysical Union