Weddell Sea

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Image:Antarctica satellite orthographic.jpg
An aerial view of Antarctica. Weddell Sea is the 'bay' in the top left corner.

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.

[edit] See also

Coordinates: 75°02′58″S, 47°15′46″W


Image:Flag of Antarctica.svg This Antarctica or antarctic or sub-antarctic islands location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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bg:Море Уедъл

ca:Mar de Weddell cs:Weddellovo moře de:Weddell-Meer et:Weddelli meri es:Mar de Weddell fr:Mer de Weddell gl:Mar de Weddell it:Mare di Weddell lv:Vedela jūra lt:Vedelio jūra nl:Weddellzee ja:ウェッデル海 no:Weddellhavet pl:Morze Weddella pt:Mar de Weddell ru:Море Уэдделла sk:Weddellovo more sr:Веделово море fi:Weddellinmeri sv:Weddellhavet tr:Weddell Denizi uk:Море Веделла zh:威德尔海

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