Figure 5: The evolution of Prydz Bay’s dense shelf water contribution to Cape Darnley bottom water.
From: The suppression of Antarctic bottom water formation by melting ice shelves in Prydz Bay
From left to right (east to west), the major source water mass into Prydz Bay is the intrusion of mCDW over Four Ladies Bank and towards Davis Station and the eastern corner of the Amery Ice Shelf. While Barrier Bay is a significant polynya, its ability to form DSW is suppressed by ISW from the West Ice Shelf and it is bathymetrically isolated from the Prydz Bay Gyre. The strongest outflow of ISW into the region comes from beneath the Amery Ice Shelf, but it recirculates within the Prydz Bay Gyre and back under the Amery Ice Shelf. In the northwestern part of the MacKenzie Bay polynya region, DSW relatively unaffected by the ISW from the Amery flows out along the western flank and out through Prydz Channel, where after it migrates west and downslope to ultimately join the very saline DSW from Cape Darnley and produce new Antarctic bottom water to the Weddell–Enderby Basin. An additional pathway for DSW westwards beneath the Cape Darnley ice barrier (dashed arrow) is also shown.
