56 



that the general features of the distribution of temperature and 

 salinity" in this section are sufl&ciently well known from earlier reports 

 (particularly U. S. Coast Guard Bull. No. 19, Pt. 2) that the 1936 

 conditions need not be shown graphically here for the entire section. 

 The intermediate water was somewhat warmer and saltier than usual 

 with no intermediate temperature minimum present. Both of 

 these departures from normal may be results of the recorded excessive 

 volume of flow of the West Greenland Current in 1935. As the West 

 Greenland Current is the source of the warm and salty constituent of 

 the mixture forming the intermediate water of the Labrador Sea, a 

 primary result of an increase of this current would be the abnormal 

 temperatures and salinities noted above. 



Regarding the absence of a temperature minimum in the inter- 

 mediate water in the South Wolf Island-Cape Farewell section, it 

 is to be expected that under conditions of abnormally large volume 

 of flow of the bordering currents a smaller central area would be sub- 

 jected to wintertime vertical convection even with normal winter 

 weather conditions. The increase in northward heat transport 

 accompanying the 1935 flood of the West Greenland Current might 

 also be expected to further reduce the amount of wintertime vertical 

 convection through the mitigation of the severity of the winter 

 weather. Thus the flooding of the West Greenland Current is looked 

 upon as producing the earher erasure of the intermediate temperature 

 minimum which has been regarded as the last cycUc remnant of the 

 wintertime conditions hypothesized by Smith, Soule, and Mosby in 

 Bulletin No. 19, Part 2. 



The cold inshore band of the Labrador Current was more extensive 

 than in 1935 and the inshore portion of the West Greenland Current 

 was colder than in 1935. However, the difference in the season 

 (June 20-23, 1936, compared with Aug. 19-23, 1935) probably 

 accounts for these discrepancies. The Irminger Current constituent 

 of the West Greenland Current was more extensive in cross section 

 than in 1935 but the maximum salinity was normal, being 35.06%o. 



On this section at station 2254, which was located just inshore of the 

 core of Irminger-Atlantic water, the observations show a case of such 

 marked instabihty as to merit special consideration. The inshore 

 portion of the section is shown in figure 58. Superimposed on the 

 section showing the distribution of o-j are the 4° and 5° isotherms and 

 the 34.95 and 35.00%o isohalines to indicate the location of the 

 Irminger-Atlantic water. From the smooth shape of the isotherms 

 there is no cause to suspect the temperatures. The salinities were 

 noted to be abnormal and the samples were titrated the following day. 

 The titration gave values 0.02 and 0.03%o even higher saUnity than 

 the original conductivity measurements. As no other salinities at 

 this station were as high, one cannot attribute the results to an inter- 



