30' 



S5' 



63' 



20° 



W 





^S0m 



GREENLAND'^?. 



za° 



30° 



40' 



50° 



60° 



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/ ^/'^/^.//'^/^'^/<^/<^/'^/^'^/^//^'// ^^// ' V/ ^/^-cP^ V LAND 





JsPITZBERGEN^-4°Ao 



4>^%-, 



ICELAND 



OPEN 

 WATER 



'<i?/4'V 



i:^t 







r 



'-m^^ 



BARENTS SEA 



OPEN 

 WATER 



' V\s^-1 > 



J5° 



20° 



10° 



0° 



20° 



30° 



40° 



S0° 



60° 



70° 



Figure 178. Ice conditions in the Greenland and Barents Seas, 

 October to December 1936. 



LITERATURE: 62, 77, 85, 171. 



Section 155. Seasonal Fluctuations 



Figure 176 showed the average many-year positions of the ice edge in the Greenland and 

 Barents Seas . Worthy of attention in this figure are the very slight shifts of the ice edge in the 

 Greenland Sea (basically from east to west in the summer and in the reverse direction in the 

 winter), and the considerable movements of the ice edge in the summer to the northeast in the 

 Barents Sea. 



Common to both seas is the fact that the ice, in the majority of cases, remains in the 

 massifs which at the end of the summer are concentrated in the northwest regions of these seas. 

 The edge is here well-defined, due to the fact that each individual floe which is torn away from the 

 massif by a decompressive wind falls into the warm water of the Spitzbergen or Norwegian current 

 and there melts very quickly. This causes a rapid reduction of the area of ice which is carried 

 out of the Arctic Basin into the Greenland Sea. 



448 



