Lincoln Sea

The Lincoln Sea (French: Mer de Lincoln; Danish: Lincolnhavet) is a body of water in the Arctic Ocean, stretching from Cape Columbia, Canada, in the west to Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland, in the east. The northern limit is defined as the great circle line between those two headlands. It is covered with sea ice throughout the year, the thickest sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, which can be up to 15 m (49 ft) thick. Water depths range from 100 m (330 ft) to 300 m (980 ft). Water and ice from Lincoln Sea empty into Robeson Channel, the northernmost part of Nares Strait, most of the time.

The sea was named after Robert Todd Lincoln, then United States Secretary of War, on Adolphus W. Greely's 1881–1884 Arctic expedition into Lady Franklin Bay.

Alert, the northernmost station of Canada, is the only populated place on the shore of the Lincoln Sea.

The body of water to the east of Lincoln Sea (east of Cape Morris Jesup) is the Wandel Sea.

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Lincoln Sea as follows:

On the North. Cape Columbia to Cape Morris Jesup (Greenland).

On the South. Cape Columbia through Northeastern shore of Ellesmere Island to Cape Sheridan to Cape Bryant (Greenland) through Greenland to Cape Morris Jesup.

Because of the severe ice conditions that last year-round, oceanographic measurements of the Lincoln Sea have been all but impossible. Before the 1980s, only low-flying aircraft samplings and ground observations from ice islands could be attempted; these did not stray far from the shores of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago due to the harsh environment. Between 1989 and 1994, the field experiments in Project Spinnaker were underway, implementing instrumentation that captured temperature and salinity profiles well into the heart of the Lincoln Sea. Taken just east of where the North American continent intersects the Lomonosov Ridge, these observations revealed the oceanographic features and current formations within and surrounding the Lincoln Sea.