DISCUSSION OF ICEBERG AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 

 1973 ICE SEASON 



After last year's heaviest iceberg season record of 1587 

 bergs south of 48°N, the 1973 season total of 847 seems small, 

 yet is still almost four times the 1946-1972 normal! Thus 

 the contributing factors, including the number of icebergs 

 available to drift south of 48°N latitude, the strength and 

 duration of the northwesterly winds producing a southerly 

 iceberg transport, the development of the features of the 

 Labrador Current (already discussed in the Oceanographic 

 Conditions, 1973 section), and the deterioration of icebergs 

 are analyzed in the following paragraphs. 



The January pre-season iceberg survey previously refered 

 to in figure 1, although presenting an obvious requirement to 

 start an early season with 264 icebergs south of Hamilton 

 Inlet, did not allow for more than a normal potential of 

 iceberg severity for the remainder of the ice season, con- 

 sidering an iceberg drift of 10-15 miles per day along the 

 Labrador Coast. However, under unusual conditions with a 

 very strong northwesterly wind it is possible for iceberg 

 drifts of 24 or more miles per day to occur. At this point 

 it is sufficient to say that a January pre-season iceberg 

 count only as far north as Cape Dyer from the Strait of 

 Belle Isle is inadequate and future surveys will have to be 

 made further north along the Baffin Island coast to obtain a 

 total potential iceberg count for the ice season. 



Figure 28a. shows the November 1972 Icelandic Low located 

 approximately 700 miles northeast of Keflavik (over 1000 miles 

 east of its normal position in the Denmark Strait), with a 

 mean pressure of 994 mb. A major trough extended west-south- 

 westward from the Low, across Iceland to the southern tip of 

 Greenland. A second major trough extended from the tip of 

 Greenland, southward, and then southwestward to the U.S. East 

 Coast. This easterly shift of the major pressure center 

 resulted in winds from the north, rather than the northeast 

 in the vicinity of Davis Strait, but with little change in 

 magnitude. This would allow southerly movement at an average 

 rate without grounding on the Baffin Island coast. 



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