Data on the water balance of the straits which connect the Arctic Basin with the Barents Sea 

 is also extremely limited. Using an indirect method, Sokolov calculated that in the autumn of 

 1931, through the straits between Spitzbergen and Franz Joseph Land, the water balance, positive 

 for the Arctic Basin, was about 30 cubic km per day, while between Franz Joseph Land and Novaya 

 Zemlya the negative balance was about 6 cubic km per day. In the Novaya Zemlya straits, the in- 

 flux of water from the Barents Sea exceeds the outflux of water into this sea from the Kara Sea. 

 Thus we may calculate approximately that the influx of water into the Arctic Basin from the Barents 

 Sea comprises about 11,000 cubic km per year. 



There is not as yet one complete transverse section across the straits between Greenland and 

 Spitzbergen. This fact makes it impossible to compute even roughly the water balance in these 

 straits. It is only known that almost the entire water mass on the continental shelf along the east 

 coast of Greenland is made up of surface arctic water flowing from the Arctic Basin into the Green- 

 land Sea, while the part of the Greenland-Spitzbergen straits which is adjacent to Spitzbergen be- 

 tween Greenwich meridian and the shore is filled with Atlantic water which is entering the Arctic 

 Basin. 



Mosby states that the quantity of Atlantic water with temperature above 1.5° entering the 

 Arctic Basin is equal to 1,200,000 cubic m per second which amounts to about 38,000 cubic km per 

 year. Berezkin has estimated the quantity of this water, writh temperature above 4° at about 

 130,000 m per second which amounts to about 4,000 cubic km per year. 



Taking into account the influx of water from the Bering and Barents Seas, we may conclude 

 that the flow of water from the Arctic Basin into the Greenland Sea, for the maintenance of the 

 balance, must exceed the influx of Atlantic water into the Arctic Basin by 30,000 cubic km per year 

 at the very least. 



In figure 147 there is represented a comparative chart of drifts of the station "North 

 Pole" and icebreaker Sedou before their entry into the Greenland Sea. In this figure the ex- 

 traordinary parellelism of both drifts is worthy of attention. This gives a slight basis for con- 

 sidering that the speed of the East Greenland current is more or less constant across the width of 

 the straits. 



According to determinations of Shirshov and Pedorov, the speed of the permanent cur- 

 rent at 81° north lat. was about 3.4 miles per day or about 2,300 km per year. Let us assume 

 that the depth of this current is 0.2 km. The ultimate overflow will then be equal to about 230 

 square km per year. Assuming that at 81° north lat. this current is confined within the limits 

 from 8° east long, to 12° west long. , or within 20° of parallel (which comprises about 350 km), 

 we find that the arctic current carries into Greenland Sea at least 80, 000 cubic km of water per 

 year, of which (with average ice thickness about 2 m) about 2,500 cubic km is represented by 

 arctic ice. 



The latter figure is obtained in the following manner: the ice, as well as the extreme surface 

 of the arctic current, move considerably faster than the basic mass of the current. E.g. , the sta- 

 tion "North Pole" during December, 1937 moved to the south with an average speed of about 10.4 

 km per day, while the Sedou in December, 1939 moved south in the same region with an average 

 speed of 9.3 km per day. Taking 10 km per day as the average speed of ice drift in December, 

 the width of the ice current as 550 km, and the average ice thickness as 2 m (taking polynyas into 

 consideration), we find that in December about 220 cubic km of ice was carried out of the Arctic 

 Basin, The ice is probably not carried out of the Arctic Basin with the same speed in all months of 



401 



