Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
clockwise gyre in the Labrador Sea, and a fresher, colder inshore branch, which wraps Newfoundland in an icy
embrace.
This inshore branch itself bifurcates, one arm turning into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the main flow con-
tinuing southward and westward. It is joined by the great flush of water that originates in the Great Lakes and
flows out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence through the Cabot Strait, where it hugs the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia
as the Nova Scotia Current. This cool, relatively freshwater mass skirts the eastern half of the coast before it
abruptly branches offshore near Halifax, flowing out to the edge of the Scotian Shelf, offshore of Nova Scotia.
But a cold offshoot of the Labrador Current ultimately enters the Gulf of Maine through the Northeast Chan-
nel, cooling the waters as far south as Cape Cod.
