Bottom Topography of the Greenland Sea in the Region of Nansen's Sill

摘要

In 1955-1956 a complex of oceanographic researches were carried out in the northern part of the Greenland Sea and in the Central Arctic areas adjacent thereto. These expeditions endeavored to study in detail the bottom topography in the Nansen Sill area, and to determine the exchange of water and heat between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Basin. Several hydrological cross-sections and depth traverses were made. It was established that there does not exist any such continuous 'Nansen's Sill' as has been hitherto charted. The sill is cut through, almost at its middle, by a deep-water trough (saddle), the axis of which extends in a northsouth direction along the meridian of l degree W. The depths in the center of this trough are as much as 3500 to 3900 m in the southern part and 3100 to 3400 m in the northern part. Farther to the north the trough merges into the deep-water depression of the Atlantic side of the Arctic Basin. Hydrological, geological and hydrochemical data also confirm the existence of the trough.