50 AtARTON AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



50 



Figure 24. — The West Greenland Current on the surface, July 27-August 2, 1931. 

 Velocities expressed in miles per day. 



ANNUAL VARIATIONS 



The question whether or not the oceanographic conditions already 

 described in this chapter as existing in west Greenland waters in 1928 

 l^revail during most summers can be answered, at least for south- 

 western Greenland, by the Coast Guard's surveys repeated there in 

 1931, 1933, and 1934, and also by further comparisons with other 

 published observations. 



Currents.- — ^The surface current maps for each of the Coast Guard's 

 surveys, when compared with the similar maj) for 1928 (fig. 8) indi- 

 cate that variations of considerable magnitude occur in the surface 

 current off southwest Greenland. The branching of the West Green- 

 land Current away from the slope at Cape Farwell in 1931, a feature 

 which is more clearly revealed in the velocity profiles than in the 

 surface current maps, represents an important departure from the 

 other years. If the velocity profiles (figs. 27 to 29) be compared 

 with the surface current maps (figs. 24 to 26) it will be noted that 

 in 1931 the volume of slope band of the West Greenland Current at 

 Cape Farewell was 3.98 million cubic meters per second, and this was 

 separated from the slope itself by 0.3 million cubic meters per second 

 of counter current. Off Ivigtut a few days earlier the slope band was 

 calculated at 2.42 million cubic meters per second. Although the 

 velocity at Ivigtut exceeded that at Cape Farewell a smaller transport 

 resulted at the former place because of the current's decrease in width 

 and draft. In the summer of 1933 the slope band at Cape Farewell, 

 amounting to 6.52 million cubic meters per second, was split by a 

 subsurface counter current of 0.76 million cubic meters per second 

 volume. Off' Ivigtut, however, the West Greenland Current swelled 

 to 12.1 million cubic meters per second ; the largest transport recorded 



