SEMINAR: AOML Seminar - December 13, 2010 - 3:00 p.m. - Dr. Verena Horman n- “Ventilation of the equatorial Atlantic and North,Atlantic oxygen minimum zone”

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AOML Seminar

DATE:             Monday, December 13, 2010

TIME:               3:00 p.m.  refreshments at

   2:45 p.m.

Location:     AOML First Floor Conference Room

SPEAKER:       Dr. Verena Hormann, CIMAS

TITLE:            “Ventilation of the equatorial   Atlantic and North
Atlantic oxygen minimum zone”

ABSTRACT: At the equator, an oxygen tongue associated with a transient eastward jet of small vertical scale
was observed at intermediate depth superimposed on the westward mean flow. Long-term velocity and
water mass observations are used to link the occurrence of oxygen tongues to the periodic behavior of
equatorial deep jets and quantify the resulting eastward oxygen flux. A recent extensive observational
program in the central tropical Atlantic also evinced the existence of weak but persistent latitudinally
alternating zonal jets at intermediate depths that contribute to the ventilation of the North Atlantic oxygen
minimum zone (OMZ). Changes in the strength of zonal jets are suggested to affect mean oxygen levels in the OMZ.