Adriatic Deep Water (ADW)A water mass - also known as Adriatic Bottom Water - formed in the southern Adriatic Sea that exits into the Ionian Sea via Otranto Strait. The temperature and salinity of ADW are 13°C and 38.6 psu, respectively. There are a couple of competing conjectures as to the origin of the ADW: some postulate that North Adriatic Deep Water flowing into the canyon in the shelf of Bari mixes with Modified Levantine Intermediate Water (MLIW) to form ADW; and others think that contribution of NADW is minor and that the ADW is formed mainly by the mixing of the surface water in the center of the South Adriatic Pit with the underlying MLIW during periods of deep convection.
Either way, most studies confirm that ADW represents the most important component of the bottom water of the entire Eastern Mediterranean. See Artegiani et al. (1993).
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