thermocline

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thermocline Generally, a gradient of temperature change, but applied more particularly to the zone of rapid temperature change between the warm surface waters (epilimnion) and cooler deep waters (hypolimnion) in a thermally stratified lake in summer. In the oceans this zone of rapid temperature change starts 10–500 m below the surface and can extend down to more than 1500 m. In polar regions the thermocline is generally absent, because the ocean surface is covered with ice in winter and solar radiation is small in summer.

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