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van Haren et al. 2006
van Haren, H., Millot, C. and Taupier-Letage, I. (2006). Fast deep sinking in Mediterranean eddies. Geophysical Research Letters 33: doi: 10.1029/2005GL025367. issn: 0094-8276.

Large (up to 0.03 m s-1) downward vertical water velocities (w) are observed using yearlong moored ADCP at ~2400 m in the deep Mediterranean Sea's Algerian basin. Once every 2--3 months, ∣w∣ rapidly increases to O(0.01 ¿ 0.002 m s-1) before slowly decreasing during a few weeks, in association with the passage of mesoscale eddies formed nearby. These amplitudes of negative w are O(100) times larger than those commonly linked to mesoscale eddies near the surface (subduction), and O(10) times larger than settling velocities for marine snow. Our observations suggest that mesoscale eddies, which are important for biological productivity near the surface, can also convect nearly fresh material down to the bottom (~3000 m there) within a few days.

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Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, Physical, Eddies and mesoscale processes, Oceanography, Physical, General or miscellaneous, Oceanography, Biological and Chemical, Sedimentation
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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