Labrador Sea

The Labrador Sea (French: mer du Labrador) is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is surrounded by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It connects to the north with Baffin Bay through the Davis Strait.^[1] It has been described as a marginal sea of the Atlantic.^[2][3]

The Labrador Sea is about 3400 meters deep and 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) wide where it joins the Atlantic Ocean. It becomes shallower, to less than 700 m (383 fathoms; 2,297 ft) towards Baffin Bay and passes into the 300 km wide (190 mi) Davis Strait.^[4]

The water temperature varies between −1 °C (30 °F) in winter and 5–6 °C (41–43 °F) in summer. The salinity is relatively low, at 31–34.9 parts per thousand. Two-thirds of the sea is covered in ice in winter.

1. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica. "Labrador Sea". Retrieved 2008-02-03.
2. ↑ Peter Calow (12 July 1999). Blackwell's concise encyclopedia of environmental management. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-632-04951-6. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
3. ↑ Boundary Currents and Watermass Transformation in Marginal Seas
4. ↑ Wilson, R. C. L; London, Geological Society of (2001). "Non-volcanic rifting of continental margins: a comparison of evidence from land and sea". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 187: 77. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2001.187.01.05. ISBN 978-1-86239-091-1. S2CID 140632779.