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Definition:
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As a general term, any water mass found at intermediate depth in the ocean. Antarctic Intermediate Water is the most important of these, followed by Subarctic Intermediate Water and Arctic Intermediate Water. Other water masses identified as intermediate water are Atlantic Intermediate Water in Baffin Bay, also called Polar Atlantic Water, identified by a temperature maximum at a depth of about 500 m resulting from inflow from the West Greenland Current; Arctic Intermediate Water in Baffin Bay, identified by a temperature minimum at a depth between 50 and 200 m resulting from inflow of arctic water from the north; and Levantine Intermediate Water in the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea, identified by a salinity maximum at a depth between 150 and 400 m and formed when cold winter winds, descending on the region between Rhodes and Cyprus and on the northern and central Adriatic Sea, result in the cooling and sinking of surface water.
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