proportion as the vessel neared the straits between Spitzbergen and Greenland, which is due to the 

 increase of speed of surface arctic current in that direction. 



Special attention must be paid to the effect of the deflective force of the earth's rotation on 

 the movement of ice carried by sea currents. When the water is stratified and after the steady 

 state has been attained, the inclination of sea level balances the Coriolis force and the horizontal 

 movement of water particles toward or away from the shore ceases. Let us consider an ice floe 

 which is drifting along toward the west in such a current. The Coriolis force will act on it and 

 due to this the flow will move in a shoreward direction despite the fact that the fixed current is 

 moving along the shore. The speed of the ice-floe's approach to shore due to the Coriolis force 

 will be balanced by the hydrodynamic resistance, depending on the shape and size of the submerged 

 part of the floe. With stratified water and a steady current, even if the wind has a shoreward com- 

 ponent, the water particles will not move shoreward. Obviously, in such a case the movement of 

 the floe due to Coriolis force will be hastened by pressure of wind on the part of the floe projecting 

 over water. 



Figure 126 shows the position of ice edges in Chuckchee Sea, 13 to 25 July 1943, according to 

 observations made on the skiff Smolny. In 1943 in the Chuckchee Sea there was little ice and 

 therefore the effect of the Chuckchee current in distributing the ice was quite clearly evident. From 

 the figure may be seen the deep bay of clear water which was formed by the Pacific current and the 

 ice tongue (carried by the Chuckchee current) which extended along the continental coast. 



Sea currents are not only important in the distribution of ice in a given region, but also 

 assist, to a certain degree, in the distribution of certain types of bottom deposits connected with 

 ice. Bottom ice, as it rises, often carries up to the sea surface some bottom particles which are 

 frozen to it. In its pressure on the shore and on shoals the ice tends to plow up the bottom. In 

 this process not only small particles but also occasional rocks and clods may be affixed to the ice. 

 This phenomenon is especially significant in glaciers descending towards the sea. * 



Subsequently, when the ice is torn from the shore and carried by currents to regions where 

 it melts and is destroyed, these foreign inclusions fall to the bottom and here form peculiar bottom 

 deposits . 



According to our observations on the Sadko in 1935, in the central, deep water of the 

 Greenland Sea at a depth of 2000 to 3000 m, an underwater ridge stretches in a meridional direc- 

 tion, made up of coarse-grained sand, pebbles and boulders. The origin of this ridge is no doubt 

 connected with the fact that in this area the ice, carried from the Arctic Basin and bringing with it 

 fragments of rock, meets the warm water of the Spitzbergen current and is thus destroyed, the rock 

 fragments falling to the bottom. The fact that these fragments form a ridge instead of being dis- 

 persed comparatively equally along the eastern part of the Greenland Sea, is one proof of the 

 antiquity of the system of currents in Greenland Sea, in particular the East Greenland current and 

 Spitzbergen current. It also proves the comparative stability of the position of the eastern ice 

 edge in Greenland Sea. 



The bottom deposits in the Barents and Kara Seas belong to the type of glacial sea deposits. 

 Grains of sand and rocks, carried by the ice, may often be found in them. 



*On 17 August 1899 in the region to the northwest of Spitzbergen, Makarov discovered an 

 iceberg whose whole surface was covered with boulders up to 1 m in diameter. 



351 



