A report on Southern Ocean

The Antarctic Ocean, as delineated by the draft 4th edition of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (2002)
A general delineation of the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes used by scientists as the demarcation of the Southern Ocean
The International Hydrographic Organization's delineation of the "Southern Ocean" has moved steadily southwards since the original 1928 edition of its Limits of Oceans and Seas.
"Southern Ocean" as alternative to the Aethiopian Ocean, 18th century
1928 delineation
1937 delineation
Area inside the black line indicates the area constituting the Pacific Ocean prior to 2002; darker blue areas are its informal current borders following the recreation of the Southern Ocean and the reinclusion of marginal seas
Continents and islands of the Southern Ocean
A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia
1564 Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map by Abraham Ortelius showed the imagined link between the proposed continent of Antarctica and South America.
Portrait of Edmund Halley by Godfrey Kneller (before 1721)
"Terres Australes" (sic) label without any charted landmass
James Weddell's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig and the cutter Beaufroy
Famous official portrait of Captain James Cook who proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. "He holds his own chart of the Southern Ocean on the table and his right hand points to the east coast of Australia on it."
Admiral von Bellingshausen
USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840.
1911 South Polar Regions exploration map
Frank Hurley, As time wore on it became more and more evident that the ship was doomed ( trapped in pack ice), National Library of Australia.
MS Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg.
Seas that are parts of the Southern Ocean
Manganese nodule
An iceberg being pushed out of a shipping lane by (L to R) USS Burton Island (AGB-1), USS Atka (AGB-3), and USS Glacier (AGB-4) near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, 1965
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the strongest current system in the world oceans, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific basins.
Location of the Southern Ocean gyres.
Regional Working Group zones for SOOS
Orca (Orcinus orca) hunting a Weddell seal in the Southern Ocean
A wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) on South Georgia
Fish of the Notothenioidei suborder, such as this young icefish, are mostly restricted to the Antarctic and Subantarctic
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals.
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a keystone species of the food web.
A female warty squid (Moroteuthis ingens)
An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel
Severe cracks in an ice pier in use for four seasons at McMurdo Station slowed cargo operations in 1983 and proved a safety hazard.

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica.

- Southern Ocean
The Antarctic Ocean, as delineated by the draft 4th edition of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (2002)

111 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Albatross

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Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses).

Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses).

Skeleton of a black-browed albatross on display at the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Phylogenetic relationships of the albatross genera, based on Nunn et al., 1996
A southern royal albatross: Note the large, hooked beak and nasal tubes.
Taking off is the most energetically demanding part of an albatross's journey, requiring the use of flapping flight to provide thrust as well as lift.
Albatrosses range over huge areas of ocean and regularly circle the globe.
Three birds on Midway Atoll, 1958
Light-mantled albatrosses regularly dive to feed, and can dive to below 12 m (39 ft).
An albatross chick at Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, Midway Atoll
An 1837 woodcut from the journal O Panorama
This black-browed albatross has been hooked on a longline.
The remains of this Laysan albatross chick show the plastic ingested before death, including a bottle cap and lighter.

They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific.

Proposed Lazarev Sea name as part of the Southern Ocean (at top of image)

Lazarev Sea

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Proposed Lazarev Sea name as part of the Southern Ocean (at top of image)
Adélie penguins near Novolazarevskaya Station, located at Schirmacher Oasis, Queen Maud Land, 75 km from the Antarctic coast, from which it is separated by Lazarev Ice Shelf

The Lazarev Sea (Море Лазарева, More Lazareva) is a proposed name for a marginal sea of the Southern Ocean.

Patagonian toothfish

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The Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) is a species of notothen found in cold waters (1 - 4 C) between depths of 45 and 3850 m in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most Subantarctic islands.

A summary of the path of the thermohaline circulation. Blue paths represent deep-water currents, while red paths represent surface currents.

Thermohaline circulation

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Part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes.

Part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes.

A summary of the path of the thermohaline circulation. Blue paths represent deep-water currents, while red paths represent surface currents.
The global conveyor belt on a continuous-ocean map [ (animation)]
Effect of temperature and salinity upon sea water density maximum and sea water freezing temperature.
Benjamin Franklin's map of the Gulf Stream

While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of about 1000 years) upwell in the North Pacific.

Location of the Weddell Gyre in the Weddell Sea.

Weddell Gyre

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Location of the Weddell Gyre in the Weddell Sea.

The Weddell Gyre is one of the two gyres that exist within the Southern Ocean.

The Balleny Islands (top) and Antarctic coast (bottom) from space, December 2007. Dark patches are ice-free sea surface.

Balleny Islands

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The Balleny Islands (top) and Antarctic coast (bottom) from space, December 2007. Dark patches are ice-free sea surface.

The Balleny Islands (-66.91667°N, 163.75°W) are a series of uninhabited islands in the Southern Ocean extending from 66°15' to 67°35'S and 162°30' to 165°00'E.

Coastal sea waves at Paracas National Reserve, Ica, Peru

Sea

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Body of salty water that covers approximately 71 percent of the Earth's surface.

Body of salty water that covers approximately 71 percent of the Earth's surface.

Coastal sea waves at Paracas National Reserve, Ica, Peru
Animated map exhibiting the world's oceanic waters. A continuous body of water encircling Earth, the World Ocean is divided into a number of principal areas with relatively uninhibited interchange among them. Five oceanic divisions are usually defined: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern; the last two listed are sometimes consolidated into the first three.
Marginal seas as defined by the International Maritime Organization
Composite images of the Earth created by NASA in 2001
Salinity map taken from the Aquarius Spacecraft. The rainbow colours represent salinity levels: red = 40 ‰, purple = 30 ‰
When the wave enters shallow water, it slows down and its amplitude (height) increases.
The 2004 tsunami in Thailand
Surface currents: red–warm, blue–cold
The global conveyor belt shown in blue with warmer surface currents in red
High tides (blue) at the nearest and furthest points of the Earth from the Moon
Three types of plate boundary
Praia da Marinha in Algarve, Portugal
The Baltic Sea in the archipelago of Turku, Finland
Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse habitats in the world.
A thornback cowfish
Map showing the seaborne migration and expansion of the Austronesians beginning at around 3000 BC
Gerardus Mercator's 1569 world map. The coastline of the old world is quite accurately depicted, unlike that of the Americas. Regions in high latitudes (Arctic, Antarctic) are greatly enlarged on this projection.
Naval warfare: The explosion of the Spanish flagship during the Battle of Gibraltar, 25 April 1607 by Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, formerly attributed to Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom
Shipping routes, showing relative density of commercial shipping around the world
German factory ship, 92 m long
Fishing boat in Sri Lanka
Scuba diver with face mask, fins and underwater breathing apparatus
Tidal power: the 1 km Rance Tidal Power Station in Brittany generates 0.5 GW.
Minerals precipitated near a hydrothermal vent
Reverse osmosis desalination plant
Great wave off the coast of Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1830
Dutch Golden Age painting: The Y at Amsterdam, seen from the Mosselsteiger (mussel pier) by Ludolf Bakhuizen, 1673
The Oceanids (The Naiads of the Sea), a painting by Gustave Doré (c. 1860)

The sea is the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans.

A United States Navy LC-130 Hercules near the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in 1996

Military activity in the Antarctic

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As Antarctica has never been permanently settled by humans, there has historically been little military activity in the Antarctic Basthe Antarctic Treaty, which came into effect on June 23, 1961, bans military activity in Antarctica.

As Antarctica has never been permanently settled by humans, there has historically been little military activity in the Antarctic Basthe Antarctic Treaty, which came into effect on June 23, 1961, bans military activity in Antarctica.

A United States Navy LC-130 Hercules near the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in 1996

While the use of nuclear weapons is absolutely prohibited, the Treaty does not apply to naval activity within these bounds (in the Southern Ocean) so long as it takes place on the high seas.

AABW is formed in the Southern Ocean from surface water cooling in polynyas.

Antarctic bottom water

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AABW is formed in the Southern Ocean from surface water cooling in polynyas.
Antarctic bottom water flow in the Equatorial Atlantic
Pathways of Antarctic bottom water

The Antarctic bottom water (AABW) is a type of water mass in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica with temperatures ranging from −0.8 to 2 °C (35 °F) and salinities from 34.6 to 34.7 psu.

Crabeater seal

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True seal with a circumpolar distribution around the coast of Antarctica.

True seal with a circumpolar distribution around the coast of Antarctica.

Illustration of the skull
Two crabeater seals
Illustration of the teeth of crabeater seals which are used to strain krill from the water
Crabeater seal with visible scars on the neck

This success of this species is due to its specialized predation on the abundant Antarctic krill of the Southern Ocean, for which it has uniquely adapted, sieve-like tooth structure.