Características oceanográficas de la región insular - Ecuador

La información analizada en este trabajo corresponde a datos obtenidos durante algunos cruceros oceanográficos efectuados en diferentes épocas del año alrededor de las Islas Galápagos, así como también información disponible durante eventos anómalos como El Niño y La Niña.

On the basis of the oceanographic data such as: temperature, salinity and currents, collected in oceanographic expeditions in different times of the year, a description of the conditions oceanographic has been made for the Galápagos Islands. The variations of surface and subsurface sea temperature are well defined in the study area and for the different analyzed seasons. From a normal dry season to a cold anomalous one the biggest variations of temperature were observed to the southwest of the Isabela Island, during a cold time they register the smallest ranges of temperature, intensifying the upwelling of the Equatorial Undercurrent on the other hand, comparing ranges of temperature during humid seasons with warm anomalous on the variations are too higher, then positive temperature anomalies in the whole region exceeds 4°C to the normal. The biggest ranges of surface salinity were observed during the dry season and cold events, without discard the presence of a tongue of high salinity located to the south of the studied area. With respect to the subsurface distribution a nucleus of high salinity is present in all the analyzed seasons, probably, related to the Equatorial Undercurrent. The circulation pattern, in the sea surface levels, presents flows west, this circulation scheme was obtained during a dry season, period of strong southwest trade winds. Subsurfacelly the currents have a predominant eastward direction, which circulation scheme belongs to the upwelling of the Equatorial Undercurrent or Cromwell Current whose nucleus is centered around 40 meters to the west and east of the island.

Incluye ref.bibl., grafs.

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