halistatic

English

Etymology

halo- (“sea”) +‎ -static. For unclear reasons the original i vowel of the Ancient Greek stem was used (compare halicore).

Adjective

halistatic (not comparable)

1. Concerning an area of a sea or ocean that has no currents passing through it, especially the area at the centre of a gyre.
   • 1935, Anselm M. Keefe, “The Sargasso Sea”, in The Scientific Monthly, volume 41, number 2, page 174:

     Thus, by describing a great circle in the ocean, the Gulf Stream and its continuations in the North Atlantic form the boundary of an enormous eddy, which the German scientist Haeckel wished to regard as a "halistatic area." This is a term which you will not find in your dictionary or encyclopedia. It explains what Haeckel thought of the comparative changelessness of this portion of the ocean.

   • 1963, L.A. Zenkevich, Biology of the seas of the U.S.S.R.‎^[1], Interscience, page 545:

     The Caspian Sea is encircled by a large cyclonic current, forming two powerful halistatic areas in the Southern and Central Caspian (Fig. 259). [...] There is a separate cyclonic current in the southern part of the Southern Caspian with its own halistatic area in the centre.