| Oceanography > Issues > Archive > Volume 16 > Issue 4 |
2003, Oceanography 16(4):77–88, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2003.14
Ocean Eddies in the 1539 Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus
Authors | First Paragraphs | Full Article | Citation
Authors
H. Thomas Rossby | University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island, USA
Peter Miller | Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
First Paragraphs
In 1539 Olaus Magnus, an exiled Swedish priest living in Italy, published a remarkably detailed map of the Nordic countries, from Iceland in the west to Finland in the east. The map, called 'Carta Marina', introduced a scope of information about these countries that broke completely new ground in terms of comprehensiveness and general accuracy. The geographical outline of the Nordic countries is quite accurate and the map includes all the major island groups such as the Faroes, Orkneys and Shetland Islands. In addition to the geography and numerous ethnographic sketches, the map also provides, as it name indicates, an extraordinary wealth of information about the waters surrounding the Nordic countries.
Olaus Magnus gives the ocean striking presence by drawing in sea monsters, some more strange than others, sailing vessels, fishing boats and kayaks. He also gives the ocean itself unusual presence or 'texture' in the form of thin dotted lines drawn horizontally everywhere there is water. But he departs from this lineal pattern in one particular area: Extending east from Iceland and passing north of the Faroes but not all the way to Norway, he draws in a band of whorls of remarkable definition. The location of these corresponds almost perfectly with the Iceland-Faroes Front, a major surface front. Nowhere else in the chart do whorls appear in such a systematic fashion. This note suggests that they were drawn deliberately to indicate the special nature of the waters east of Iceland, and as such would appear to be the earliest known description of mesoscale eddies in the ocean. This is a region of high thermal contrast where warm North Atlantic waters from the south and very cold waters from north of Iceland come together and mix. It seems likely that Olaus Magnus got the information from mariners of the Hanseatic League operating out of northern Germany cities, many of which he is known to have visited and lived in both before and after he was exiled from Sweden.
Full Article
Citation
Rossby, H.T., and P. Miller. 2003. Ocean eddies in the 1539 Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus. Oceanography 16(4):77–88, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2003.14.