Evening star., 1937-04-29
OCEAN 'D|ST|LLERY
REPORTED FOUND
Cold Water Made in dead
Area" Near Labra-
dor Sea.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

physical Union today by Comdr E. H.
Smith Of the United States Coast
Guard Ice Patrol
It is an area of dead water about
the size of New England in the middle
OF the Labrador Sea- Here, through
reverse diStillation process, vast guam
titles of cold, heavy water are laid
down which become the 20O-meter-
deep floor Of the ocean
The Labrador Sea itself does not
yet appear on any maps 1t is the
4,000-meter-d deep basin between the
North American Continent and Green
land. Now it is called Davis Strait
The Coast Guard geographers propose
to restrict the latter name to the mar
row passage into the Arctic Ocean to
the northward, and to consider all the
southern part between Labrador and
Greenland as true sea.
The clue to the real function of
the Labrador Sea is in Coast Guard
measurements of the intioWing and
outf1oWing water. Rounding Cape
Farewell, the southern extremity of
Greenland, is the northward- flowing
West Greenland current, pouring
water into the Labrador Sea and the
Arctic at the rate of 100000 cubic
meters a second. This water pours
back into the Atlantic again in the
form of the Labrador current, run
ming close to the North American
coast, which is notorious as the path
of lcebergs. But the Labrador current
carries only about 5500,000 cubic
meters Of water a second.
Water Disappears Rapidly
Somewhere more than 100000
cubic meters OF water a second disap-
pears. The Coast Guard made a
careful check to find what became
Of it. Some. it was found, went into
the Arctic by way of Davis Strait,
but most of it seemed to have vanished
into thin air.
Now it had been learned from
chemical tests of water from various
depths that the North Atlantic, from
about the latitude of Boston north
ward, consists of four layers, progress
sively saltier and colder from top 10
bottom. First is the floor" from 200
to 300 meters deep, which is very heavy
and keeps a constant temperature of
is degrees centigrade barely above
freezing. Above this is the thick, cold
deep water layer, slightly warmer and
less salty. Then come the intermediate
and surface water layers.
These four ocean layers. it had long
been suspected, must come from diff
ferent sources. The Coast Guard
ha H..
great eXpanse of the Labrador Sea be-
tween the two oppositely flowing cur
rents. This area is normally very
quiet. They noted two phenomena by
depth measurements. First, some OF
the water poured in by the Yves.
Greenland current went onto the sur
face of the quiet area during the Sum-
mer and gradually sank from level 10
level over a period of six or eight
months until it finally reached the
bottom. With each stage it sank, the
colder and heavier it became.
Terrific Pressure.
On the bottom there was a terrific
pressure upon it. Being an un-
restrained liquid it gave way easily
and oozed out over the floor of the
ocean. 1t was too heavy to rise. The
process has been going on for count
less generations, building up an ever
thicker heavy water floor for the
North Atlantic.
Still more of the water poured into
the Labrador Sea by the West Green
land current 'dived" abruptly to great
depths. 1t has come originally from
the tropics. All the way north there
had been a constant process of
, evaporation. leaving the water heavy
with salt. The surface water of the
quiet Labrador Sea also is relatively
heavy but, Comdr Smith reported, as
soon as the two mixed the mixture
compenents.
1t is this diving water" he said
which makes up the thick deep water
layer of the North Atlantic immedi-
ately above the floor layers The in
termediate layer comes from the grad
ual sinking of surface water and never
becomes notably cold or salty since
there is a constant interchange The
two bottom layers, however, are semi
permanent.
The Atlantic is split in two by a
great undersea mountain range ex-
tending across it at about the latitude
OF Boston. South of these submarine
mountains the stratif1cation of the
ocean Is much the same, except that
the Labrador Sea no longer contributes
the two bottom layers 1t is known
however, that they come originally
from the Antarctic Ocean. The Ant.
arctic "dlstillery" never has been pre-
cisely located. 1t must be titanic ir
size compared with the Labrador Sea
Proposals are now before the Ma
tional Geographic Board, it was an
nounced, to place the Labrador Sea
On all official maps. 1t is sort of twir
to Bering Sea on the west of the con-
tinent, but its true nature has not
been appreciated in the past due to the
fact that the southern edge of it.
basis is projection of Iceland which
does not protrude above the surface
of the ocean. 1t will be one of the
worlds great "seas" which school chill
dren will have to memorize in the fu.
ture.
Academy Elects Two From d. C.
Two Washingtonians were elected
to membership in the National Acad.
emy Of Sciences, one of the outstand.
ing honors for scientific achievement
in this country, at the annual meeting