The Southern Ocean

Geologically the youngest of the oceans, the Southern Ocean was formed roughly 30 million years ago when Antarctica and South America moved apart, opening the Drake Passage. 

Named after the British sailor James Weddell who entered the sea in 1823, the Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and is believed to have the clearest water of any sea. Measurements by Dutch researchers in 1986 established visibility to a depth of 262 feet, which is the same as the clarity of distilled water. In 1950 the historian Thomas Henry described how ships were unable to navigate a path through the Weddell Sea to the coast until 1949, and the treacherous ‘flash freezes’ that left expedition ships such as Ernest Shackleton's Endurance at the mercy of the ice floes.

One of the last seas on the planet not to have been harmed by human activity, the Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land, and was discovered by James Ross in 1841. To its west is Ross Island with the Mt. Erebus volcano and, to the east, Roosevelt Island. The southern part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf and at its closest point it is only around 200 miles from the Geographic South Pole. It boasts both an incredible biological diversity and a long history of human exploration and scientific research. Amundsen set off on his South Pole expedition in 1911 from the Bay of Whales at the Ross Ice Shelf. 

"The Weddell Sea is, according to the testimony of all who have sailed through its berg-filled waters, the most treacherous and dismal region on earth. The Ross Sea is the relatively peaceful, predictable, and safe."   
Thomas R Henry

Itineraries relating to the Southern Ocean

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