SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



53 



PACK ICE ON THE OKAND BAKK 



The pack roaches the nortliein part of the (irand P)ank late in 

 January or early in February, where tlie water, still cold as a result 

 of the preceding- winter's c]iillin<r. keeps it from melting rapidly. 

 The XewfountUand Banks (Grand, Green, and St. Pierre), aggre- 

 gating some 60,000 square miles, are the submerged ccmtinuation of 

 the Xorth American Continent, Avhich slopes here southwestward 

 far out on the Atlantic sea Hoor. Off southern Newfoundland the 

 ])ack tends to part as the current meets the northern buttress of 

 the Grand Bank, around which it sweeps. The inshore arm no longer 

 flanked by the coast line moves southwestward past Cape Race in the 

 submarine ravine known as the (tuIIcv. l)Ut the larirer. heavier tongue 



64- 61 5a 55 5Z 49 46 



The Distribution of Pack Ice South of Newfoundland 



4-5 



Figure 27. — The limits to which the main body of pack ice has been recorded south 

 of Newfoundland is shown above. The short heavy lines represent the positions at 

 which fields of pack ice have been siglited during the height of the ice season. 

 (Figure after Huntsman, 1930.) 



follows southward along the eastern side of the Grand Bank. The 

 we.stern fields in years of great abundance may block the bays and 

 narbors along the south shore of Newfoundland as far Avest as the 

 Micjuelon Islands '" and send scattered floes even out to the edge of 

 the Atlantic slope. The field which drifts down along the eastern 

 side of the bank is interesting, not only on account of its intimate 

 association with the icebergs but also because it attains the southern- 

 mo.s:t point to which sea ice from high latitudes drifts in the Northern 



3» The waters of southern Newfoundland have often been described as dominated by a 

 current which sets westerly from Cape Uace along the coast and which rounds Cape Ray 

 entering the gulf. Much data, however, such as current meter measurements, the distri- 

 bution of salinity and temperature, the results of hundreds of drift bottles, the general 

 configuration of the bottom, and the tidal movements, show that the current and ice after 

 rounding Cape Race do not set any farther west than the Mi()uelon Islands. 



