Dissolved Oxygen and Carbonate-carbon Dioxide in the Sea Water of the South China Sea, Area I: Gulf of Thailand and East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Dissolved oxygen and carbonate system in seawater in the Gulf of Thailand and the east coast of Peninsular Malaysian September 1995 and April-May 1996 were determined. It was found that surface water was well in equilibrium with the atmosphere. The sub-pycnocline water in the Gulf had the chemistry that was distinctly different from the mixed layer as well as from sub-pycnocline water in the South China Sea near the mouth of the Gulf, even with the same depth. There were some evidences that intermediate water in the South China Sea might flow into the Gulf along the central axis and the coast of Vietnam and Cambodia, and exited the Gulf along the Thai-Malay Peninsular coast. The chemistry of deep water in the South China Sea off the coast of Western Malaysia varied its chemistry by a great deal among seasons which might be due to the prevailing monsoon. Seawater in the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea was supersaturated with respected to the mineral calcite.