Physical, chemical and sedimentological aspects of the Mediterranean outflow off Iberia

A multidisciplinary study of the Mediterranean outflow in the region west of the Strait of Gibraltar and off the southern and southwestern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula was developed in the frame of the Canary Islands Azores Gibraltar Observations Project. Two high-resolution CTD surveys, which included water sampling for chemical (nutrients and dissolved oxygen) and sedimentological analyses, took place in September 1997 (summer cruise) and January 1998 (winter cruise) in the study region. The correspondence between the high-salinity Mediterranean Water (MW) layer and the low-nutrient content and relatively high abundance of particles was a general result. Further details of the thermohaline analysis and of the geostrophic computations, especially for the layer of MW, are compared with the results obtained for the chemical properties and the sedimentological characteristics.