Weddell Sea

Weddell Sea

The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. Much of the southern part of the sea, up to Elephant Island, is permanent ice, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentina, (Argentine Antarctica) and Britain (British Antarctic Territory), and also resides partially within the territorial claim of Chile (Antarctic Chilean Territory). At its widest the sea is around 2,000 km across, in area it is around 2.8 million km².

The sea is named after the British sailor James Weddell who entered the sea in 1823 as far as 74° S. It was first widely explored by the Scot William S. Bruce over 1902-04.

It was in this sea that Shackleton's ship, the "Endurance" was trapped and crushed by ice in 1915.

The ice shelves which used to extend roughly 3900 square miles (10,000 km²) over the Weddell Sea have completely disappeared by 2002.

It is believed that the break-up of Gondwana started in the Weddell Sea.

ee also

*Weddell Seal


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  • Weddell Sea — [wə del′, wed′əl] [after James Weddell (1787 1834), Brit whaler who discovered it (1823)] section of the Atlantic east of the Antarctic Peninsula …   English World dictionary

  • Weddell Sea — /wed l, weuh del / an arm of the Atlantic, E of Antarctic Peninsula. * * * ▪ sea, Atlantic Ocean       deep embayment of the Antarctic coastline that forms the southernmost tip of the Atlantic Ocean. Centring at about 73° S, 45° W, the Weddell… …   Universalium

  • Weddell Sea — Karte der Antarktis, im Nordwesten das Weddell Meer Satellitenbild des nördlichen Weddellmeeres, östlich der Antarktischen Halbinsel Das Weddell Meer ist ein Randmeer des …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Weddell Sea — /wɛdl ˈsi/ (say wedl see) noun a wide arm of the southern Atlantic, in Antarctica. {named after J Weddell} …  

  • Weddell Sea — Wed′dell Sea′ [[t]ˈwɛd l, wəˈdɛl[/t]] n. geg an arm of the Atlantic, E of Antarctic Peninsula …   From formal English to slang

  • Weddell Sea — noun an arm of the south Atlantic in Antarctica to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula • Instance Hypernyms: ↑sea …   Useful english dictionary

  • Weddell Sea — geographical name arm of the S Atlantic E of Antarctic Peninsula …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Weddell Sea —  , Antarctica …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • Weddell Sea —    , Antarctica …   Dictionary of troublesome word

  • Winter-Weddell-Sea-Project — Das Winter Weddell Sea Project bezeichnet eine vom 6. Mai bis 14. Dezember 1986 in der Antarktis durchgeführte Expedition, währenddessen das Forschungsschiff Polarstern die sieben Monate des südlichen Winters im Weddell Meer verbrachte. Die… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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