Abstract
NEWS from the Soviet North Pole Expedition is given by the Soviet Union Year Book Press Service. It would appear that the floating station is drifting southward towards north-east Greenland. This was to be expected from what is known of the general trend of Arctic currents. Under wind action there are easterly or westerly deviations from this main, direction. The drift to the south has averaged 2 · 35 miles a day since the establishment of the station, and the speed is increasing as the East Greenland Current is approached. During the first month the drift to the south was 84 miles and during the fourth month it was 95 miles. A sounding in the vicinity of the Pole showed a depth of 2,346 fathoms, and it is unlikely that much greater depths occur in the Arctic Sea. The intermediate warm layer of water which Nansen discovered north of Spitsbergen and explained as being saline Atlantic water has been found near the Pole at depths between 12 and 30 fathoms. At a depth of 36 fathoms the water temperature was found to be almost zero, with a steady fall with increasing depth to –0·67 ° C. at the bottom. It is of interest to note that the inner parts of the Arctic Sea in the vicinity of the Pole are rich in plankton and have much larger animal life. The floes are even and flat. The smooth floes were, of course, reported by Peary, and did much to facilitate his march to the Pole.
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North Pole Station. Nature 140, 765 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140765a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140765a0