Deep Standing Internal Waves in California Basins1

Periodic variations of the water temperature observed at depths of 700, 850, and 1000 m in the Catalina Basin (sill at 982 m, bottom at 1357 m) lead to the inferred existence of deep standing internal waves having an amplitude of 130 to 200 m. The presence of such waves may account for the prior observation of bottom currents as great as 18 cm/sec, of suspended sediment near the basin floors, of a virtual absence of gradients of oxygen and nutrients near the bottom, of locally coarser sediments at basin sills than at their bottoms, and of replacement of basin water so rapidly that oxygen does not become deficient nor do regenerated nutrients become abnormally concentrated in the basin waters.