Greenland Sea

a part of the Arctic Ocean, NE of Greenland and N of Iceland.

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▪ sea, Arctic Ocean

Danish and Norwegian  GrØnlandshavet 

      outlying portion of the Arctic Ocean, with an area of 465,000 square miles (1,205,000 square km). It lies south of the Arctic Basin proper and borders Greenland (west), Svalbard (east), the main Arctic Ocean (north), and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland (south). Average depth is 4,750 feet (1,450 m), with the deepest recorded point at 16,000 feet (4,800 m).

      A line linking northeast Iceland, the isolated island of Jan Mayen, and Bear Island (Bjørnøya) forms the conventional border between the Arctic Greenland Sea and the Norwegian Sea to the southeast. The line also marks significant underwater ridges and indicates the average edge of Arctic ice.

      The first scientific investigations of the region were carried out in 1876–78. Norwegian, Icelandic, and Soviet vessels, among others, have since carried scientific expeditions into the area. In 1909 Fridtjof Nansen (Nansen, Fridtjof) helped detail the complex current system, and his scheme was updated by later Soviet studies.

      The bed of the Greenland Sea deepens irregularly northward and is divided by the submarine Mohns Ridge into the Greenland Basin (Hollow) and, to the south, the North Icelandic Deep. Silts fill the submarine hollows and gorges; silty sands, gravel, boulders, and other products of erosion coat the shelves and ridges.

      Bitter north and northeast winds cool the sea surface and drive the cold waters southward. Air temperatures reach as low as -57° F (-49° C) off Spitsbergen and as high as 77° F (25° C) off Greenland. Averages are 14° F (-10° C) in the south and -15° F (-26° C) in the north for February, the coldest month. August, the warmest month, averages 41° F (5° C) in the south and 32° F (0° C) in the north. The number of frosty days ranges from 225 (south) to 334 (north). Precipitation totals 10 inches (250 mm) annually in the north and double this amount in the south. Surface water temperatures range from 30° F (-1° C) in the north, in February, to 43° F (6° C) in the south, in August. Fogs are frequent.

      The East Greenland Current brings ice down from the north and bifurcates near the central ridge. Branches of warm Atlantic currents push floating ice northward. The ice season lasts from October to the following August, and the ice includes Arctic pack ice (several yards thick), sea ice (about a yard thick), and freshwater ice in the form of towering icebergs. Tides, together with the complex current system, break up the ice sheet and cause a mixing of the various water layers.

      The Greenland Sea is quite densely inhabited by lower life forms, which serve as the base of the food chain. Large invertebrates, fishes (including cod, herring, redfish, halibut, and plaice), birds (including gulls and ducks), and mammals (including seals, whales, and dolphins) all feed on the smaller invertebrates and small organisms. Mosses, lichens, and scanty bushes around the coasts support the few deer and musk oxen.

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