THE BARENTS SEA 79 



The North Cape current enters the Barents Sea in two streams a little to the 

 north and south of 72° N latitude. The southern stream is slightly less saline 

 owing to the coastal dilution of water (34-2 to 35-2% ), its speed being slightly 

 greater (about 4 to 4-5 cm/sec). The northern stream consists of fully saline 

 Atlantic waters (35-0 to 35-2% ) and travels slower than the southern one 

 (about 2 cm/sec). 



The chart of the currents of the Barents Sea was first compiled by N. M. 

 Knipovitch at the very beginning of this century (1902-06). In his opinion 

 (later developed in detail by L. Breitfuss and Gebel), the North Cape current 

 entering between Bear Island and the continent breaks into four main 

 branches, corresponding, as Knipovitch supposed, to the four deeper trenches 

 in the floor. In this conception the Barents Sea appeared as a kind of flowing 

 water mass, the movement being from west to east and north, and with more 

 or less rectilinear currents. According to Knipovitch cold and slightly saline 

 polar water lies on the ridges and shallows between the warm branches of 

 the stream. L. Breitfuss even assumed the presence of cold countercurrents 

 moving to meet the warm water and dividing into separate branches. 



A different point of view on the circulation of the Barents Sea waters was 

 expressed about the same time. As early as 1902 F. Nansen and later Helland- 

 Hansen (1912) represented the movement of water in the Barents Sea as one 

 huge cyclonic vortex breaking up into several smaller ones. Over shallows 

 and depressions, round which cyclonic eddies are formed, cold local polar 

 water becomes stagnant. Nansen and Helland-Hansen's theory was completely 

 confirmed by N. Zubov (1932) and A. Sokolov (1932), when they applied the 

 dynamic method in their treatment of the extensive new data on the hydrology 

 of the Barents Sea. In the western part of the Sea (30° to 35° W) the North 

 Cape current is broken up by the influence of the floor contour into separate 

 branches, of which the least saline (34-6% ) but warm (average annual tempera- 

 ture 4-3° C) branch moves along the north of Norway and the Murman coast. 

 This is the so-called Ruppinovsk branch, which is of great significance for the 

 distribution of the littoral fauna. The second branch flows along the meridian 

 of the Kola Guba between 71° 51' and 72° 45' N, the third at 73° 15' N and 

 the fourth at 75° 15' N. The North Cape streams become cooler and less 

 saline the farther north they move. 



Thus the southwestern part of the Sea as far as the Kola meridian to the 

 east and as far as 73° N have, except for the section next to the coast, a salinity 

 of about 35% , and a temperature of not less than 3° С in the main depth of the 

 water column and 2° С in the bottom layer. These conditions make it possible 

 for the warmer-water fauna to exist there. 



Water balance 



The following quantitative characteristics of the waters flowing into the Barent 

 Sea were given for the summer of 1931 by A. Sokolov and V. Lednev (1935) : 

 North Cape-Bear Island 163-3 km 3 /day 



Spitsbergen-Franz Joseph Land 38 



Franz Joseph Land-Novaya Zemlya 49-2 



Total 250-5 



