132 



MARION AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



The primary circulation over the Grand Banks themselves as 

 interpreted from the distribution of the temperature and salinity 

 (fig. 94) is based mainly upon the United States Coast Guard's 

 surveys (Smith, 1924, pp. 100-134) and that of the Scotia (Matthews, 

 1914, pp. 30-32). The above observations indicate that the Labra- 

 dor Current fans out and loses draft on meeting the northern slope 

 of the Grand Banks, the inshore branch of which, subject to con- 

 siderable variation, turns back in the vicinity of the fifty-fifth 



55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 



Figure 94/ — Tlie primary circulation over the Grand Banks. 



meridian and joins with coastal water (most pronounced in the 

 surface layers) in slow eastward progress. The colder, saltier Lab- 

 rador water slides to the bottom while the coastal water spreads 

 out in the surface layers. There are continual coastal contributions 

 which accumulate in the more central parts of the Grand Banks at a 

 maximum in summer, flooding that column surface to bottom and 

 giving it low salinity character although it is actually about 200 miles 

 from the neare.st land. This water mass normally centered near lati- 

 tude 44°-30', longitude 50°-00' (fig. 94) Is intermittently cooled and 



