33 



Referring to the corresponding velocity profiles the warm water core 

 can be seen as confined largely to the north setting coiintercurrent. 

 The current boundaries are probable sources of considerable mixing 

 leading to the eventual formation of bottom water. An isolated pool 

 of high salinity water slightly above 34.50%o was found along the 

 slope at section A. This salinity is approximately that of the salter 

 water entering Baffui Bay across the Davis Strait sill, which is its 

 probable origin. Assuming this source and subsequent movement 

 northward tlu'ough Baffin Bay with but little mixing, its present depth 

 of about 1,000 meters as compared to an original of not over 600 

 meters could easily be explained on the basis of sinking accompany- 

 ing density mcrease on cooling. Smith, Soule, and Mosby (loc. cit.) 

 have found similar isolated pools of high salinity water, believed to 

 be transitory remnants of earlier intrusions of more saline water, 

 along the Labrador shelf. 



Figure 22 shows the temperature-salinity correlation curves for 

 Baffin Bay water. It is recognized that too few data have been col- 

 lected to construct thorougldy reliable curves of this type but the 

 good agreement between the curves for the 1928 data (Godthaab) and 

 1940 data (Northland) warrants their reproduction here. This agree- 

 ment of the two sets of data supports the previous use of both in the 

 construction of the composite map of the djmamic topography (fig. 

 18). In the salinity range above 34.0/oo the 1940 data falls into two 

 temperature groups, one designated in the figure as slope water be- 

 ing characterized by lower temperatures than that of the other, basin 

 water, lying farther offshore. No attempt was made to break down 

 the 1928 observations into corresponding groups but a rather wide 

 temperature spread was evident for salinities exceeding 34.0/oo. The 

 curves show the frigid character of the entire water mass. The min- 

 imum temperatures of about —1.7° C. occur near 200 meters depth 

 with salinities between 33.7%o and 33.8/oo. An mteresting compari- 

 son can be made between the temperature-salinity curves of Baffin 

 Bay water and those of Labrador Current, mixed, and Atlantic Cur- 

 rent waters in the vicinity of the Grand Banks as shown by Soide 

 elsewhere in this bulletin (fig. 29). The type of curve for Baffin Bay 

 water is most nearly like that of Labrador Cm-rent water but is much 

 displaced toward the cold, less saline side. The intermediate posi- 

 tion of the curve for the Labrador Current water between those of 

 Baffin Bay and Atlantic Current water shows that although the La- 

 brador Current water in the sm'face layers could have been formed 

 by mixing selected portions of the other waters, the proportion of 

 Baffin Bay water required for the mixture would decrease with in- 

 creasing depth to become almost negligible below 600 meters. The 

 Labrador Current, mixed, and Atlantic Current waters at depths 

 over 1,000 meters are closely similar but of much higher temperature 



