Tritium and oxygen profiles in the eastern Mediterranean

The tritium and oxygen concentration profiles reported here were made in February and March 1974 and refer to the Straits of Sicily, the Ionian Sea, the Sea of Crete and the Levantine Basin. In the stations southeast of Rhodes and north of Crete, the most saline waters have the highest tritium concentrations, i.e. 10.5 ± 0.5 T.U. and 14 T.U., respectively. In the Ionian Sea and the Straits of Sicily, on the contrary, the tritium maximum lies above the salinity maximum, with values from 12 to 19 T.U.

The core of the Levantine Intermediate Water shows the same tritium concentration (about 10 T.U.) from the Levantine source regions as far as the central Ionian, suggesting a fairly high westward flowrate.