Author(s): T. Kawamura; H. Eicken; K. Shirasawa; M. Ishikawa; T. Takatsuka
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Abstract: Saroma-ko Lagoon, located on the northeast coast of Hokkaido, Japan, is a semi-enclosed embayment connected with two openings to the Sea of Okhotsk, resulting in a salinity of about 32 psu. Freshwater input to the lagoon from a river causes a gradual decrease in water salinity from the opening towards inshore. The lagoon surface is covered with sea ice during the winter from late January/early February to early April with significant interannual variability. The freshwater input to the lagoon allows for studies of ice formation along a strong salinity gradient. In a number of field campaigns over several years, ice platelets attached to the bottom of the ice cover were found almost every year. The ice platelets’ morphology, size and crystallographic orientation were quite similar to those previously studied in the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans. The characteristics of the ice platelets are described and then possible mechanisms of their formation and growth are discussed on the basis of temperature, salinity, current and oxygen isotopic composition data of the ice and the underlying water.
Year: 2008