XVIII.—Recent Oceanographical Investigations in the Faroe-Shetland Channel

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Section A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
• Main Author: Tait, John B.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1957
• Subjects: General Medicine; Arctic; Norwegian Sea
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0080454100007500; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0080454100007500

Synopsis The Faroe-Shetland Channel is the threshold from the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean to north-west European seas. Through it passes the main bulk of the oceanic water-mass which is the predominant influx, among several other water-masses, to these seas. The following research into the dynamics and general hydrography of the region is based on numerous observations of temperature and salinity, from surface to bottom, taken mainly on two vertical cross-sections of the Channel between the years 1927 and 1952 inclusive, excepting the war years 1940 to 1945. The research reveals very large scale seasonal and long-term variations in the northeastward volume-transport of oceanic water, suggests the existence on occasions of what appear to be horizontal tortional currents within the oceanic water-mass, and demonstrates (a) the intrusion of Gulf of Gibraltar (extra-Mediterranean) water into this mass over a period of years, (b) the formation of heavy oceanic water and (c) of a sub-oceanic watermass. The last-mentioned may sometimes almost entirely displace the bottom Norwegian Sea water-mass which normally underlies the oceanic mass. One or other, or both, of two types of Arctic water may also sometimes displace bottom Norwegian Sea water as the bottom water-mass of the region, the process, like that of the above-mentioned Gulf of Gibraltar water influx, waxing and waning over a term of years and thus exemplifying the phenomenon of marine climatic change.