Greenland Sea
| Greenland Sea | |
|---|---|
1.jpg) |
|
| Art | Side sea |
| ocean | Atlantic Ocean |
| location | between Greenland , Iceland , Jan Mayen and Svalbard |
| Affiliated seas | Denmark Street , Fram Street |
| Important islands | Jan Mayen |
| Cities on the shore | Ittoqqortoormiit |
| Data | |
| surface | 1,205,000 km² |
| volume | 1,747,000 km³ |
| Maximum depth | 4800 m |
| Middle deep | 1450 m |
 |
|
 |
|
Coordinates: 77 ° N , 8 ° E
The Greenland Sea (rarely: Greenland Sea ) is the 1.2 million square kilometer sea that stretches between Greenland's east coast, Iceland's north coast, Jan Mayen and Svalbard . It is a tributary of the Arctic Ocean .
In the west, the Denmark Strait connects the Greenland Sea with the Atlantic . In the east and southeast, which closes Norwegian Sea to the Greenland Sea, and to the north beyond the point Nordostrundingen the Greenland Sea is via the Fram Strait with the Wandel Sea connected.
geography
shape
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the boundaries of the Greenland Sea:
- North: Line from the northernmost point of Svalbard to the northernmost point of Greenland .
- East: West coast of Svalbard
- Southeast: a line from the southernmost point of West Spitzbergen ( Sørkapp ) to the northernmost point of Jan Mayens , the west coast of Jan Mayen to the southernmost point of the island, there the border follows a line to Gerpir (65 ° 05 ′ N, 13 ° 30 ′ W ) in Iceland .
- Southwest: A line from Straumnes (most northwestern point of Iceland) to Cape Nansen (68 ° 15 ′ N, 29 ° 30 ′ W) on Greenland.
- West: East and northeast coasts of Greenland between Cape Nansen and the northernmost point of the island.
The deepest point is the Molloy Depth , which lies 5669 meters below the sea surface.
With an area of 1,205,000 km², the Greenland Sea has a water volume of 2,408,000 km³. This results in an average depth of 1440 meters.
geology
The Greenland Sea consists of three different basins: the Iceland basin has a maximum depth of almost 2800 meters, a small Jan Mayen basin and a large Greenland basin, which is the deepest part of the sea. These are bounded by the west and north Jan Mayen ridges. To the west, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge , to which Iceland also belongs, limits the basin.
Hydrology
The Greenland Sea, together with the Barents Sea and the Labrador Sea, is one of the most important sources of cold deep water in the northern hemisphere. It is one of the few seas in which there is direct exchange between the different water layers at different sea depths.
The hydrology of the Greenland Sea is primarily determined by the East Greenland Current, a surface current from northeast to southwest that originates in a current that cuts through the Arctic Ocean. The current reaches a depth of up to 600 meters and is limited at the bottom by the Greenland continental shelf. On the surface it is reinforced by frequent north-easterly winds and reaches flow speeds of 25 cm / s. East of the stream is a countercurrent. The water of the East Greenland Current extends significantly further to the east in summer than in winter. To the north of Jan Mayen, a branch current forms which, in a counterclockwise vortex, takes up large parts of the sea. In their center, in turn, there is an exchange of water between surface and deep water.
North of Iceland, the Icelandic Current branches off from the East Greenland Current and flows to the southeast. In the Denmark Strait it meets the Irmingerstrom and flows with it through the Denmark Strait.
The east coast of Greenland is permanently covered with sea ice, with the ice cover being smallest in September. The sea has the largest ice cover in April, when the entire Greenland Sea is covered by ice.
In total, there are five major amounts of water in the Greenland Sea: Arctic surface water comes from the Arctic Ocean with the East Greenland Current. It is located on the larger western part of the sea, is 200 meters deep in summer and 600 meters in winter, has a lower salinity than the Atlantic at 31.5 to 34 g / kg and has temperatures between −2 degrees Celsius and +1 Degrees Celsius. The Greenland Sea surface water is created in the eastern part of the sea through interaction between Atlantic and Arctic water, has a salinity of 34.7 to 34.9 g / kg and temperatures between 0 and 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 below 500 meters, intermediate water takes up the majority of the volume created by mixing Arctic water and the Atlantic waters of the Northern European Sea. It has a temperature of around −0.44 degrees Celsius and a salinity of 34.9 g / kg. The water in the deepest layers is similar to the water of the European North Sea, has temperatures between −0.9 degrees Celsius and −1.1 degrees Celsius, and a salinity of over 34.92.
meteorology
Usually there is an arctic air mass over the northern Greenland Sea, and a polar air mass over the southern Greenland Sea. In winter, the border between the two fronts runs roughly on the same line from Iceland to Novaya Zemlya , and cyclones are frequent on this border. The maximum air temperatures in summer are around 8 to 9 degrees in the entire sea, in winter they normally drop to -10 degrees in the southern part and -37 degrees in the northern part of the sea.
Remarks
- ↑ International Hydrographic Organization: Limits of Oceans and Seas ( Memento of May 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), 3rd edition 1953, pp. 6–7 (PDF; 970 kB)
- ^ Martin Klenke, Hans Werner Schenke: A new bathymetric model for the central Fram Strait . In: Marine geophysical researches 23, 2002, pp. 367-378, doi : 10.1023 / A: 1025764206736
- ↑ a b c d e f g A. G. Kosti︠a︡noĭ, Jacques CJ Nihoul, VB Rodionov: Physical oceanography of frontal zones in the subarctic seas , Gulf Professional Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-444-51686-7 , p. 54
- ^ Hendrik Mattheus van Aken: The oceanic thermohaline circulation: an introduction , Springer, 2007, ISBN 0-387-36637-7 , p. 17
- ↑ Hendrik Mattheus van Aken: The oceanic thermohaline circulation: an introduction , Springer, 2007, ISBN 0-387-36637-7 , p. 122
- ^ A b Hendrik Mattheus van Aken: The oceanic thermohaline circulation: an introduction , Springer, 2007, ISBN 0387366377 , p. 127
- ↑ a b A. G. Kosti︠a︡noĭ, Jacques CJ Nihoul, VB Rodionov: Physical oceanography of frontal zones in the subarctic seas , Gulf Professional Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-444-51686-7 , p 55
