Greenland Sea
The Greenland Sea ( rare: Greenland Sea) is the 1.2 million square kilometers of ocean that extends from Greenland 's east coast, north coast of Iceland, Jan Mayen and Svalbard. It is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean.
In the West, the Denmark Strait connects the Greenland Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. To the east and southeast, the Norwegian Sea to the Greenland Sea connects to, and to the north beyond the point Northeast round rings the Greenland Sea via the Fram Strait is connected to the wall lake.
Geography
Shape
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Greenland Sea that:
- North: line from the northernmost point of Spitzbergen to the northernmost point of Greenland.
- East: West coast of Spitsbergen
- East: a line from the southernmost point of West Spitzbergen ( Sørkapp ) to the northernmost point in January Mayens, the west coast in January Mayens to the southernmost point of the island, the boundary follows a line to Gerpir ( 65'05 "N, 13 ' 30 " W ) in Iceland.
- Southwest: A line of Straumness (north westernmost point of Iceland ) to Cape Nansen ( 68'15 "N, 29 ' 30" W) on Greenland.
- West: Eastern and Northern East Coast of Greenland between Cape Nansen and the northernmost point of the island.
The lowest point is the Molloytief, which lies 5669 meters below the sea surface.
With an area of 1.205 million km ² ³ the Greenland Sea has a water volume of 2.408 million km. This gives an average depth of 1440 meters.
Geology
The Greenland Sea is composed of three different basins: the Iceland basin has a maximum depth of nearly 2800 meters, a small Jan Mayen pool and a large Greenland basin in which is located the deepest part of the sea. These are limited by the west and north -Jan- Mayen- back. To the west limits of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which also includes Iceland heard the pool.
Hydrology
The Greenland Sea, together with the Barents Sea and the Labrador Sea one of the most important sites of origin of cold deep water in the northern hemisphere. It is thus one of the few seas where there is direct communication between the different water layers at different depths.
The hydrology of the Greenland Sea is mainly determined by the East Greenland Current, a surface flow from northeast to southwest, which has its origin in a stream, which cuts through the Arctic Ocean. The current ranges up to 600 meters deep, where it is limited by the Greenland continental shelf down. At the surface, it is amplified by common northeastern winds reaching velocities of 25 cm / s East of the stream there is a counter- flow. The water of the East Greenland in summer reaches much further to the east than in winter. North of Jan Mayen to form a branch flow, which occupies a large part of the sea in a counterclockwise swirl. In the center of which in turn leads to an exchange of water between surface and deep water.
North of Iceland branches off the current from Iceland ostgrönländichen current, and flows to the southeast. In the Denmark Strait, he meets the Irmingerstrom and flowing with this through the Denmark Strait.
The east coast of Greenland is permanently covered with sea ice, the ice in September is the smallest. The largest ice sheet has the sea in April, when the entire Greenland is covered by ice.
There are five large quantities of water in the Greenland Sea: Arctic surface water from the East Greenland Current from the Arctic Ocean. It is located on the larger western part of the sea, in summer and in winter 200 meters 600 meters deep, has 31.5 to 34 g / kg of a lower salinity than the Atlantic and has temperatures between -2 ° C and 1 degrees Celsius. The Grönlandseeoberflächenwasser occurs in the eastern part of the sea by interaction between the Atlantic and Arctic water has a salinity of 34.7 to 34.9 g / kg and temperatures 0-2 degrees Celsius. Along the Greenland coast there is a narrow band of water that reaches about 150 meters deep, is formed by the drainage of Greenland, and accordingly has large seasonal differences.
In water depths less than 500 meters intermediate water occupies the majority of the volume that results from the mixing of arctic waters and the Atlantic waters of the Norwegian Sea. It has a temperature of about -0.44 ° C and a salinity of 34.9 g / kg. The water in the deepest layers similar to the waters of the Nordic Seas, has temperatures between -0.9 ° C and -1.1 degrees Celsius, and a salinity of about 34.92.
Meteorology
Mostly there is an arctic air mass over the northern Greenland Sea, and a polar air mass over the southern Greenland Sea. In winter, the boundary between the two fronts is approximately on a line from Iceland to Novaya Zemlya, where at this border hurricanes are common. The maximum air temperatures in summer about 8-9 degrees across the sea, in the winter they sink normally up to -10 degrees and -37 degrees in the southern part of the northern part of the sea.