The North Icelandic Jet is a deep-reaching current that flows along the

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margi ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. The North Icelandic Jet advects overflow water into the

Denmark Strait The Denmark Strait is the strait that separates Greenland from Iceland. Geography The strait connects the Greenland Sea, an extension of the Arctic Ocean, to the Irminger Sea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is long. The narrowest part o ...

and constitutes a pathway that is distinct from the

East Greenland Current The East Greenland Current (EGC) is a cold, low-salinity current that extends from Fram Strait (~80N) to Cape Farewell (~60N). The current is located off the eastern coast of Greenland along the Greenland continental margin. The current cuts thr ...

. It is a cold current that runs west across the top of Iceland, then southwest between Greenland and Iceland at a depth of about . The North Icelandic Jet is deep and narrow (about wide) and can carry more than a million cubic meters of water per second. It was not discovered until 2004. It was initially studied and described by two Icelandic Marine Research Institute’s specialists, Steingrímur Jónsson (also a professor at the

University of Akureyri The University of Akureyri ( , regionally also ) was founded in 1987 in the town of Akureyri in the northeastern part of Iceland. It is today a school of Humanities and Social science, and a school of Health, Business and Natural science. Over 280 ...

, and Hédinn Valdimarsson). The current was found to be a key element of the

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is the main ocean current system in the Atlantic Ocean.IPCC, 2021Annex VII: Glossary [Matthews, J.B.R., V. Möller, R. van Diemen, J.S. Fuglestvedt, V. Masson-Delmotte, C. Méndez, S. Sem ...

.North Icelandic Jet: New Ocean Current Could Change Climate Picture
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References

* [http://www.hafro.is/images/upload/denmarkstrait.pdf Steingrimur Jonsson and Hedinn Valdimarsson, A new path for the Denmark Strait overflow water from the Iceland, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L03305, doi:10.1029/2003GL019214]
Stefanie Semper, Kjetil Våge, Robert S. Pickart, Héðinn Valdimarsson, Daniel J. Torres & Steingrímur Jónsson, The emergence of the North Icelandic Jet and its evolution from Northeast Iceland to Denmark Strait, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49, 2499-2521, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-19-0088.1
Oceanography Currents of the Arctic Ocean {{Marine-current-stub