Editing Labrador Sea (section)

{{Short description|Arm of the North Atlantic Ocean}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox sea
| name               = Labrador Sea
| image              = Labrador-sea-paamiut.jpg
| caption            = Past sunset at Labrador Sea, off the coast of [[Paamiut]] (Frederikshåb), [[Greenland]]
| image_bathymetry   = Labrador sea map.png
| caption_bathymetry = 
| location           = 
| pushpin_map        = Canada
| coords             = {{coord|61|N|56|W|type:waterbody_scale:10000000|name=Labrador Sea|display=inline,title}}
| type               = [[Sea]]
| inflow             = 
| outflow            = 
| catchment          = 
| basin_countries    = [[Canada]] and [[Greenland]]
| length             = c. {{cvt|1000|km|0}}
| width              = c. {{cvt|900|km|0}}
| area               = {{cvt|841000|km2|-2}}
| depth              = {{cvt|1898|m|0}}
| max-depth          = {{cvt|4316|m|0}}
| reference          = <ref name=bse>{{cite web|url=http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_geo/153/%D0%9B%D0%90%D0%91%D0%A0%D0%90%D0%94%D0%9E%D0%A0#%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BE%CC%81%D1%800|language=ru|title=Labrador|publisher=[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]}}</ref><ref name=r1>{{cite journal|author1=Wilson, R. C. L|author2=London, Geological Society of|doi=10.1144/GSL.SP.2001.187.01.05|title=Non-volcanic rifting of continental margins: a comparison of evidence from land and sea|isbn=978-1-86239-091-1|year=2001|page=77|volume=187|journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications|issue=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bsvkxVBTasC&pg=PA77|bibcode=2001GSLSP.187...77C|s2cid=140632779|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
| other_name         = Labradorhavet
}}
The '''Labrador Sea''' ({{langx|fr|mer du Labrador}}; {{langx|da|Labradorhavet}}) is an arm of the [[North Atlantic Ocean]] between the [[Labrador Peninsula]] and [[Greenland]]. The sea is flanked by [[continental shelf|continental shelves]] to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It connects to the north with [[Baffin Bay]] through the [[Davis Strait]].<ref name=brit>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046724/Labrador-Sea|title=Labrador Sea|author=Encyclopædia Britannica|author-link=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2008-02-03}}</ref> It is a [[marginal sea]] of the Atlantic.<ref name="Calow1999">{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Calow|title=Blackwell's concise encyclopedia of environmental management|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0E0LP-pPCWwC&pg=PA7|access-date=29 November 2010|date=12 July 1999|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|isbn=978-0-632-04951-6|page=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Spall, Michael A. |title=Boundary Currents and Watermass Transformation in Marginal Seas |doi=10.1175/1520-0485(2004)034<1197:BCAWTI>2.0.CO;2 |journal=J. Phys. Oceanogr. |volume=34 |pages=1197–1213|year=2004|issue=5|bibcode=2004JPO....34.1197S |s2cid=128436726 }}</ref>

The sea formed upon separation of the [[North American Plate]] and [[Greenland Plate]] that started about 60 million years ago and stopped about 40 million years ago. It contains one of the world's largest [[turbidity current]] channel systems, the [[Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel]] (NAMOC), that runs for thousands of kilometers along the sea bottom toward the Atlantic Ocean.

The Labrador Sea is a major source of the [[North Atlantic Deep Water]], a cold water mass that flows at great depth along the western edge of the North Atlantic.
[[File:Labrador Sea in its region.svg|thumb|right|Map showing the Labrador Sea according to the IHO definition]]