By Amy Bower

The ocean below the sunlit layer holds many mysteries. It is a deep, dark and cold environment–so incredibly different from the environment in which we humans live. But it by no means is a static or stagnant place—in fact, there are currents of moving water that play an important role in Earth’s climate.

One of these is called the Deep Western Boundary Current. It flows along the sea floor off the east coast of North America. As it snakes its way southward, it sometimes runs into another deep-reaching current called the North Atlantic Current. This happens east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and the Flemish Cap (a large seamount east of the Grand Banks). This region is sometimes called the “crossroads” of the North Atlantic due to the clashing of these two major currents. But what happens when these two currents intersect?

We hope to find out in a new study of these currents using deep drifting floats that we will release in the Deep Western Boundary Current on several oceanographic research expeditions in May, August and September this year.  The first of these expeditions, on the Research Vessel Roger Revelle, will leave from Woods Hole on May 9 to head to the Grand Banks area for 3 weeks of releasing drifters and to anchor the 6 acoustic sound beacons that will be used to track the drifters under water over the next two years. How these all work will be the subject of future posts, made regularly throughout the expedition, which will end on June 2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

We hope you will follow along with us as we explore the crossroads of the North Atlantic!