Jökull - 01.12.1969, Síða 69

Fig. 5. March 31, 1968. Now there is no escape.
The main ice-pack is just off the coast.
drifted in the direction of the gap between
Greenland and Spitsbergen. At first they drift-
ed with an average speed of 3—5 km per day.
The direction of the drift was frequently
changed, or even reversed, by the wind; but
still the average was 5 km per day in the direc-
tion of Greenland. They gradually gained speed
until by the time they passed Northwest Fore-
land they were averaging 8 to 10 km per day.
They continued drifting south till they got to
the vicinity of Scoresby Sund, then thev were
getting so near the open water that it became
dangerous and the Russians sent a ship to pick
them up in February 1938, near Scoresby Suncl.
It is interesting to note that adverse winds
were able to reverse the drift of the floe and
presumably then a great portion of the Arctic
tcefield. The drift however was on the average
5 to 10 km per day. It would not be wise to
take this as conclusive proof that ocean cur-
fents are the dominant factor of the ice drift
as the following episode shows:
,,Roald Amundsen undertook in 1919 to re-
peat Nansen’s drift on the Fram, embarking on
the same course aboard the schooner Maud.
But whereas it had taken Nansen only 40 days
to drift from Novaya Zemlya to the New Siber-
tan Islands, it took Amundsen more than a
year to complete the same journey. Amundsen
had assumed that the climatic and oceanic pro-
cesses of the Arctic follow a regular cycle year
after year. Actually they are subject to great
and irregular fluctuations that yield a predict-
able pattern only in ultimate correlation with
the cycles of solar activity. By chance Amund-
sen had chosen the worst possible time for this
voyage” (Gordienko 1951).
The accounts of these three expeditions seem
to indicate that direction and speed of the
wind is a large and sometimes even a decisive
factor in the ice drift. It is suggested by the
author of this article that prevailing (for several
months) northerly winds will cause unusual
amount of ice to drift through the gap be-
tween Greenland and Spitsbergen. This out-
flow of ice from the Polar basin into the
Greenland Sea can at all times be observed in
the APT pictures, when they are obtainable
Fig. 6. April 3, 1968. The main ice-pack has
reached the coast. Polar bears have been sighted.
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