Experiment in eastern Mediterranean probes origin of deep water masses

During the last decade the oceanography community has focused much attention on the Mediterranean Sea. One reason for the growing interest is that the Mediterranean's impact on the Northern Atlantic Ocean is more significant than previously realized. The warm, salty Mediterranean water tongue exits the Gibraltar Straits and spreads throughout the North Atlantic at all depths between 1000 and 2500 m. The second reason for the surge in interest is the well-recognized role of the Mediterranean Sea as a laboratory for studying ocean processes that are important in global climate dynamics [Malanotte-Rizzoli and Robinson, 1991; Malanotte-Rizzoli and Robinson, 1994].