Courant du Labrador

The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Scotia, this cold water current meets the warm northward moving Gulf Stream. The combination of these two currents produces heavy fogs and has also created one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. In spring and early summer, the Labrador Current transports icebergs from the glaciers of Greenland southwards into the trans-Atlantic shipping lanes. The waters of the current have a cooling effect on the Canadian Atlantic provinces, and on the United States' upper northeast coast from Maine south to Massachusetts. South of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Gulf Stream becomes the dominant ocean current. The Labrador Current has a tendency to sometimes go farther south and/or east than normal. This can produce hazardous shipping conditions, for it can carry icebergs into an area of the Atlantic where they are not usually found. The current has been known to transport icebergs as far south as Bermuda and as far east as the Azores. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the International Ice Patrol was set up to track icebergs, including those found in areas of the ocean where they are rarely located. The Labrador Current has an average annual velocity of 20 cm/s and is formed from very cold water that is around 1.5 ̊C from the Arctic through Baffin Island, Canada, and Western Greenland. These waters come together in the Labrador Sea. The Labrador Sea is affected by seasonality and will experience greater freshwater imports during the late spring and early summer with riverine runoff and glacial melt. The ocean circulation in the subpolar regions in the North Atlantic have seasonal variations due to the cold, freshwater Labrador Current and the warm, salty North Atlantic Current, as well as with changing surface winds, heat flux, and ice melting and formation.