76 



MARION AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



Of the channel around the 400-meter depth, marks Irmmger-Atlan- 

 tic water of the West Greenland Current. In its passage of 600 

 miles along the Greenland slope this water, solely through mixing, 

 lost approximately 4° C. of its temperature and 0.50o/oo of its 

 salinity in a period of 3 months after passing Gape Farewell. The 

 salinity profile (fig. 44) records two reservoirs of fresh water one^ 

 on either side of Davis Strait, the larger of which hugged the 

 American side. Solely on the basis of such a distribution, currents 

 normal to the section are predicated for Davis Strait with the more 

 voluminous flow on the BaiRn Land side. 



A north-south temperature profile through Davis Strait (ng. 45) 

 emphasizes the shearing action of the currents— a southerly com- 



FiGURH 45.— The vertical distribution of temperature longitudinally through midchann 

 of Davis Strait. (For station identification, see fig. 38.) 



ponent dominated the upper layers to a depth of nearly 300 met«i 

 and a northerly component prevailed from there to the botton; 

 In this manner' cold water spread southward in the surface layer 

 and warmer water worked northward into Baffin Bay. Practicall 

 identical salinity but higher temperature of the channel streai 

 across Davis Strait Kidge marked this branch of the West Greer 

 land Current as an eventual supply of Baffin Bay. 



The extent of the production and propagation of the bottoi 

 water of Baffin Bay is of particular interest to us, inasmuch f 

 such water may indirectly affect the deeper water of the Labradc 

 Basin. That a great part of the bottom water of Baffin Bay 

 probably formed by the intermixture of Atlantic and Arctic mass« 

 in the northern ]:>a"rt of the bay is the opinion of Commander Km 

 Carstensen expressed in a letter to one of us. The oxygen dii 

 tribution of Baffin Bay (fig. 148, p. 187) indicates that bottom wat( 



