The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1930, Page 13
I. THE ICELANDIC CLIMATE.
The climate of Iceland is, according to Thoroddsen 1914 p. 265 f.,
determined not only by the geographical situation of the island
and the prevalent winds of the North Atlantic, but also to a great
extent dependent on the current-conditions of the surrounding seas.
The south and west coasts of Iceland are waslied by the warm
Gulf Stream, while on the north and east coasts we have the cold
polar current. The waters of the two currents meet in tlie sea out-
side south-east of Iceland itself, on a line running from Vatnajökull
to the Færoes and to the north-west off Cape Horn. It is as well
to note at once that in the highland tracts of Iceland between these
two points, we find a series of jökulls in decreasing volume from
Vatnajökull to the jökulls of Vestfirðir.
The current conditions may be more precisely described as
follows: The Gulf Stream washes the shores of Iceland all along
the south and south-west coasts of the island, gradually gathering
to a stream which follows the coast towards the west and further
towards the north. Off Cape Horn, this branch of the Gulf Stream,
known as the Irminger Current, encounters the Polar Current coming
from the Polar Sea. A branch of the Irminger Current again is
forced outward from the coast by this Polar Current, and another
branch, rounding Cape Horn, follows the northern coasts of the
island to the eastward, cooling as it goes, and finally disappearing
under the water masses of the Polar Current itself. At Grímsey, it
is still of great importance, but farther east, it vanishes altogether,
and the shores of East lceland are thus washed solely by the polar
water. The situation, then, is as follows: the south and west coasts,
i. e. the coast south of the “jökullsline” is washed exclusively by water
from the Gulf Stream. The north and east coasts are washed by
polar water; the eastern by this alone, the northern by this and
Gulf Stream water as well.
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