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Grendel’s Lair

March 23, 2012

In the fall of 2011, the WHOI-operated research vessel Knorr sailed past the Faroe Islands east of Iceland, an ideal home for Beowolf’s nemesis. The team on board, led by WHOI physical oceanographer Bob Pickart, included scientists from Iceland, Norway, and the Netherlands. The research cruise confirmed the existence of a previously unknown ocean current called the North Icelandic Jet that turns out to play an important role in driving the lower limb of the Ocean Conveyor, the global ocean circulation system that helps regulate Earth’s climate.

(Photo by Dan Torres, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)