10 Labrador Sea Facts You Must Know

An arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Labrador Sea lies between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland, surrounded by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest and northeast.

Read this article to learn 10 interesting facts about the Labrador Sea.

1. Connects to the north with Baffin Bay via Davis Strait

The Baffin Bay, situated between Baffin Island and Greenland’s west coast, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, as mentioned by the International Hydrographic Organization. Some also consider it a part of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is linked to the Atlantic through the Davis Strait and Labrador Sea. The Nares Strait connects it with the Arctic Ocean.

The Baffin Bay cannot be navigated for most of the year as the ice cover is thick, and one can find floating ice and icebergs that pose a danger to ships. A Pokunya of 31,000 square miles, called the North Water, opens in summer near Smith Sound, which houses most of the bay’s marine life.

The Davis Strait is the world’s broadest strait. It is a southern arm of the Arctic Ocean lying north of the Labrador Sea, between Greenland and Baffin Island. Davis Strait was named after John Davis, who explored the region while trying to find a Northwest Passage. By the mid-1600s, the area was famous for whale hunting.

2. The process of its formation began 200 million years ago

The Labrador Sea was created when the supercontinent Pangaea broke up about 200 million years ago. It then rifted apart during the Triassic and Jurassic periods due to convection currents in the underlying mantle, which weakened the crust.

Gradually, the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate moved away from each other, and the North Atlantic Ocean began to form between them. An arm of this emerging water body called the Labrador Sea separated Greenland from Baffin Island and Labrador.

About 60 to 65 million years ago, seafloor spreading in the Labrador Sea led to a broadening of the Gulf. It coincided with the global warming period called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

Around 35 million years ago, the Labrador Sea got its modern semi-enclosed shape as North America and Greenland drifted further apart. The Labrador Current also began to flow south through this sea. Sea levels increased in the Oligocene, which flooded the area and established it as an ocean basin.

3. Shipping Route between North America & Europe

Major shipping lanes cross the Labrador Sea. It is a principal shipping route between North America and Europe and is a major route for transatlantic trade.

Many items are shipped through the sea, including necessities for Inuit communities living along the coast. Common cargo which passes through the Labrador Sea includes minerals, oil and gas, manufactured goods, packaged food, and containerised cargo.

4. Floating Icebergs Pose Difficulties for Ships

Shipping is difficult in winter due to floating icebergs, which pose dangers for ships. Many ports lie near the Labrador Sea, such as St John’s. Newfoundland, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and ports in Greenland, such as Nuuk. These ports and coastal towns function as trade hubs aiding regional and transatlantic shipping.

Additionally, other factors like strong winds, dense fog and rough seas make navigation challenging, increasing the risk of collisions and accidents. In this part of the world, navigation needs special vessels called icebreakers that can move through the ice and trained crew members.

The Labrador Sea does not witness much hustle and bustle given its location; however, if oil and gas exploration and mining in the region increases, then there is a possibility that shipping traffic might rise, too.

5. Rich in shrimp fisheries and other mammal species

The northern and western parts of the Labrador Sea remain covered with ice between December and June. The drifting icebergs serve as a breeding ground for seals in spring. The Labrador Sea is also the feeding ground for Atlantic salmon and other mammals.

Shrimp fisheries and cod fishing started in the late 1970s and increased in the 2000s. Cod fishing depleted the fish population near the Labrador and West Greenland shores and was stopped for some time.

Other major catches include herring, lobster, haddock, and pelagic fish like sand lance and capelin, which are abundant in the southern part of the sea. Beluga whales dominate the Baffin Bay, where they number around 20,000. The Labrador Sea has Sei whales, minke and bottlenose whales.

The Labrador duck was common on the coasts of Canada until the 19th century; however, now it is extinct. Other coastal animals are moose, black bear, labrador wolf, arctic fox, snowshoe hare, raven, geese, partridge, ducks and American wild pheasant.

Coastal vegetation includes white spruce, black spruce, dwarf birch, aspen, willow, cottongrass, lichens and moss. Evergreen bushes of Labrador tea, used for making herbal teas, are common in the region near the coasts of Greenland and Canada.

6. Ernest Shackleton’s Missing Ship Found In Labrador Sea

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society found Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Quest, in the Labrador Sea. The ship was discovered upright, in a well-preserved condition at a 390 m depth, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

The ship sank in May 1962 after suffering damage due to ice while it was hunting seals. It now lies in the traditional waters of the Mi’kmaq, Innu and Inuit people.

After the death of polar explorer, Shackleton, the ship was used in many expeditions like the 1930-31 British Arctic Air Route Expedition led by adventurer Gino Watkins. It also served in the Second World War and participated in more routine jobs before its demise.

7. Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel (NAMOC) runs through it

One of the world’s largest turbidity current channels, the Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel or NAMOC runs thousands of kilometres along the bottom of the Labrador Sea towards the Atlantic Ocean. It is the main current channel system running along the Hudson Strait via the Labrador Sea, ending at Sohm Abyssal Plain in the Atlantic Ocean.

With a total length of around 3800 km, NAMOC is one of the world’s longest underwater channels. It is 100 to 200 m deep and 2 to 5 km wide at the channel floor.

It’s more developed in the northern portion and becomes straighter to the south, though it takes abrupt turns due to seamounts and fractures in the sea bed.

8. A major source of the North Atlantic Deep Water

The Labrador Sea is a major source of the North Atlantic Deep Water, a cold water mass that flows along the western edges of the North Atlantic Ocean. It eventually spreads to create the biggest identifiable water mass in the world’s oceans.

This cold salty water forms near Greenland, Iceland and Norway as cold Arctic water sinks and mixes with warmer, saltier water from lower latitudes.

The dense water formation drives thermohaline circulation. It flows southward, 1000 to 4000 m below the ocean surface. The water has a temperature range of 0-4°C and a high salinity of 34.9-35.1 parts per thousand.

The North Atlantic Deep Water spreads south into all the oceans as a bottom current, circulating heat, salt, carbon and nutrients across the globe. It plays a major role in global oceanic circulation and climate regulation. Changes in its rate of formation due to climate change could disrupt the worldwide temperature and ocean currents.

It accounts for 15 to 20% of the total water volume in the oceans of the world, though it forms in a small area of the North Atlantic.

The NADW consists of three parts of different origins and salinities, and the top one, the Labrador Sea Water, is formed in the Labrador Sea. This occurs at a medium depth with comparatively low salinity and low temperature and is higher in oxygen than layers above and below it.

The Labrador Sea Water has low vorticity, which means it can form vortices compared to any other waters of the North Atlantic. It is denser and sinks under the surface, unaffected by surface fluctuations.

9. The Labrador Sea is around 3400 m deep

The Labrador Sea is 3400 m deep and 1000 km wide when it meets the Atlantic Ocean. It becomes shallower to less than 700 m as it reaches Baffin Bay and flows into the 300 km broad Davis Strait.

A 100 to 200 km deep current channel system, 2 to 5 km wide and 3800 km long, runs along the sea’s bottom, close to its centre from the Hudson Strait into the Atlantic. It is one of the longest drainage systems of the Pleistocene age and looks like an underwater river bed with several tributaries.

The water temperature varies between -1 degrees Celsius in winter and 5 to 6 degrees Celsius in summer. Salinity levels are low, around 31 to 34.- parts per thousand; about two-thirds of the sea is covered with ice in winter. Tides are semi-sural, occurring twice daily with heights of about 4 m.

10. Anticlockwise water circulation in the Labrador Sea

The anticlockwise circulation in the sea is due to the East Greenland Current and the West Greenland Current, which bring warm and more saline waters northwards along the coasts of Greenland and up to Baffin Bay.

The Baffin Island Current and the Labrador Current carry cold and less saline water towards the south along the shores of Canada. In their path, the currents take several icebergs that hinder navigation and efforts of exploring gas fields beneath the sea bed.

The speed of the Labrador Current is between 03 and 0.5 m/s, but it can become 1 m/s in some parts. The Baffin Island current is slow at around 0.2 m/s. The former has a water temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and a salinity between 30 to 34 parts per thousand.

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About Author

Zahra is an alumna of Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is an avid writer, possessing immaculate research and editing skills. Author of several academic papers, she has also worked as a freelance writer, producing many technical, creative and marketing pieces. A true aesthete at heart, she loves books a little more than anything else.

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