191 5- '^'o. 2. 



SPITSBERGEN WATERS. 



29 



A compariBon between the vertical series of observations at the sta- 

 tions on the sheh' and those at the stations at the mouth of the fjords 

 within, shows that the intermediate layer with minimum temperatures is 

 considerably thicker, and also colder, at the mouth of the fjords than on 

 the shelf outside. As an example compare Stations 53 and 52 at the 

 mouth of Bell Sound (Fig. 29), Stations 49 and 48 at the mouth of Ice Fjord 

 (Fig. 26), and Stations 16, 



15, and 14 outside and 

 in Cross Bay (Fig. 12). 

 This seems to prove that, 

 although the cold water. 

 of the intermediate layer 

 is carried out and in by 

 the tidal currents, at any 

 rate in the outer part of 

 the fjords, it remains for 



o inj 



53 



- '-'321 



52 50 



51 



--IP Oé-^^-iS ^fr^p^ 

 ■-7.P.Q- .-^2:fjy25 1 (92 -33-25 £77-33Zi L 



3^00 



iOO 



5£r ^'^ 



Fig. 29. Section along Van Älijen Bay and Bell Sound (see 

 Fig. I). Horizontal Scale i : 1,000,000. V'ertical Scale i : 5,000. 

 a lon<=^ time durin^' the The intermediate isotherm of oOC. at Stat. 52, ought to have 



passed westwards bej-ond Stat. 53 in about 60 metres, indi- 



summer, in the t^ords. 



eating a thin lai'er with temperatures below zero at that station. 



and is carried away onl}' 



very slowl}', and is gradually heated, chiefly by intermixture with the water 



of the overlying and underlying layers. 



The Swedish oceanographers (cf. Svenska Hydrografisk-biologiska 

 Kommissionen 1911, pp. 13 et scq.) maintain that the melting of the sur- 

 face ice and the glacier ice during the spring and summer has a consider- 

 able cooling effect upon the water-strata of the Spitsbergen fjords ; and they 

 believe that the cold intermediate strata, as well as the strata of somewhat 

 warmer water near the bottom, are formed by a vertical circulation caused 

 by this cooling. 



In the summer of 191 2 I got, however, a convincing illustration of 

 how very little cooling effect the melting of the ice on the sea-surface has 

 on the underlying strata. After having taken several vertical series of 

 observations in the mouth of Ice Fjord between July i6th and 21st we 

 went north and did not return to Ice Fjord until August 24th. The fjord 

 was then full of ice, which some time before had been carried into it by 

 the current along the coast from the south (see Fig. 2|. There was so 

 much ice that it was difficult to navigate between the floes, and several 

 ships had not been able to reach Green Harbour. 



The ice remained in the fjord, and outside for a long time, and was 

 melting there. The water at 50 metres and the intermediate cold laN'er, with 

 a minimum temperature, were much warmer in August than we had found 



