North Atlantic iceberg drift
node · earth · Grand Banks of Newfoundland and the Labrador Current
The seasonal cycle that puts ice in a shipping lane. Icebergs calve from the glaciers of west Greenland, are carried south on the Labrador Current, and waste away where they reach Gulf Stream water — so their reach varies enormously from year to year. The 1912 season pushed ice unusually far south and unusually early, and Titanic received at least six wireless ice reports during 14 April. Two conditions that night removed the warnings a lookout depends on: the sea was flat calm, so there was no breaking water at an iceberg's base, and there was no moon. The phenomenon is why the International Ice Patrol exists, and it is measured, not predicted — the patrol publishes observed limits of iceberg drift, not forecasts of where ice will be.
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- North Atlantic — Grand Banks approacheslocated_in
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