St. Anna Trench

St. Anna Trench – a fault trough-type depression in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas southeastward of Franz Josef Land Islands. The length is ca. 600 km. The maximum depth is 600 m. Brusilov Sill separates S. from Vostochnaya Novaya Zemlya Trench in the south. It was named after Sv.Anna, the ship that carried G.L. Brusilov’s Russian polar expedition. Warm Atlantic waters as well as the Arctic Ocean waters flow along the trench into the Kara Sea. The water temperature in these streams amounts to 1.5–1.7 or even 2 °C. The warm layer of these waters covered by a cold water cap (−1.5 to −1.8 °C) is a route along in which relatively warm water penetrates the Kara Sea. Deepwater species of fish linking the Arctic Ocean’s fish fauna with that of the Arctic coastal areas were discovered in the trench.