58 



MARION AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



The above table shows that the West Greenland Current " trans- 

 ported more heat per second past Cape Farewell in 1935 than in any 

 other summer for which there is record. The additional heat was, 

 moreover, due not to a higher mean temperature but to a more volii- 

 minous current. At Ivigtut more heat was carried in 1933 than in 

 any other year, but there are only data there from three summers 

 with which to make comparisons. The greatest variation in the rate 

 of heat transfer is noted for the summer of 1931 at Ivigtut wdien it 

 amounted to only about 25 percent of any of the other summers. 

 This deticiency is described above (p. 54) as arising not from lower 

 temperature of the current itself, as can be seen from the table of 

 average temperatures, but to major branching at Cape Farewell. 



Figure 31.— Temperature at 100, 200, 400, and 600 meters July 9-14, 1933 



Variations in the rate of heat transport of the West Greenland Cur- 

 rent may have many far-reaching effects. That such variations do 

 occur is proved by the quantitative observations included in the fore- 

 going table, but as to the range of such variations and what corre- 

 lations exist between them and related factors — climatic, biological, 

 and glaciological — the data are yet scanty. It may be more than 

 simply coincidental, for example, that contemporary with the deficit 

 in 1931 of the rate of heat transported northward into Davis Strait 

 and toward blockaded iceberg glaciers (Smith, 1931) only 13 ice- 

 bergs that spring were recorded south of Newfoundland. 



In this connection it should be mentioned that the method of ice- 

 berg forecasting developed by Smith (1931) and tested by the Coast 



'■ Bohnecke (1931) found the Irminger Current in Deuniurk Strait more volun\inous in 

 1928 than 1930. 



