Search results
People also ask
How deep is the Antarctic Ocean?
What Ocean surrounds Antarctica?
Does the southern ocean encircle Antarctica?
What is the elineation of the Antarctic Convergence?
- The Southern Ocean Is The Fourth Largest Ocean. The Southern Ocean occupies an area approximately 7.8 million square miles making it the fourth largest ocean in the world behind the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean but is significantly larger than the Arctic Ocean.
- The Existence Of The Southern Ocean Is A Matter of Debate. Since the late 18th century, the Southern Ocean has been a subject of contention to cartographers and geographers with some accepting the existence of the Southern Ocean but some believing that the ocean is just but a southern extension of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.
- The Geology And Hydrology Of The Southern Ocean Is Unique. The Southern Ocean formed about 30 million years ago after South America and Antarctica separated and opened up the Drake Passage making the Southern Ocean the youngest of all the world’s oceans in geological scale.
- The Southern Ocean Has Extreme Weather And Climatic Conditions. The Southern Ocean’s proximity to the south pole causes it to experience one of the most extreme weather conditions with the sea temperatures coming just above freezing point, ranging between negative (-) 2 degrees and 10 degrees Celsius.
- Overview
- Physiography
- Hydrology and biological resources
The Southern Ocean has an average depth of 10,728 feet (3,270 meters) and a maximum depth of 24,383 feet (7,432 meters) in the South Sandwich Trench, southeast of the island of South Georgia.
How many square miles does the Southern Ocean cover?
The Southern Ocean covers 8,479,000 square miles (21,960,000 square km), which is approximately one-sixteenth of Earth’s total ocean area. It holds 17,226,000 cubic miles (71,800,000 cubic km) of water.
What organisms live in the Southern Ocean?
The waters of the Southern Ocean favor the growth of diatoms and other single-celled plants. Krill are the most important organism in the higher food chain. Animals on the sea bottom include hydrozoans, corals, sponges, bryozoans, sea spiders, isopods, polychaetes, eelpouts, sea snails, rat-tailed fishes, codlike fishes, hagfish, and skates.
Southern Ocean, body of salt water covering approximately one-sixteenth of Earth’s total ocean area. The Southern Ocean is made up of the portions of the world ocean south of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and their tributary seas surrounding Antarctica below 60° S. It is unbroken by any other continental landmass. Its narrowest constriction is the Drake Passage, 600 miles (about 1,000 km) wide, between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. In terms of area, only the Arctic Ocean is smaller.
The Southern Ocean covers 8,479,000 square miles (21,960,000 square km), and it holds 17,226,000 cubic miles (71,800,000 cubic km) of water. It has an average depth of 10,728 feet (3,270 metres) and a maximum depth of 24,383 feet (7,432 metres) in the South Sandwich Trench, southeast of the island of South Georgia.
Britannica Quiz
Everything Earth
The structure of the ocean floor includes a continental shelf usually less than 160 miles (about 260 km) wide that attains its maximum width of more than 1,600 miles (2,600 km) in the vicinity of the Weddell and Ross seas. There are oceanic basins farther north that are as much as 14,800 feet (4,500 metres) deep, defined by oceanic rises and often marked by ranges of abyssal hills. There are also narrow oceanic trenches with high relief, such as the South Sandwich Trench on the eastern side of the South Sandwich Islands. Other relief features include oceanic plateaus that rise from the oceanic basins to depths of less than 6,650 feet (2,000 metres) below sea level and form rather flat regions, which are often covered by relatively thick sedimentary deposits.
The flow of currents in the Southern Ocean is complex. Water cooled by cold air, outgoing radiation, and katabatic winds off of the Antarctic continent sinks and flows northward along the ocean bottom and is replaced at the surface by an equal volume of warmer water flowing south from the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. The meeting point of t...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Introduction. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was minus 128.56 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 89.2 degrees Celsius), registered on July 21, 1983, at Antarctica's Vostok station.
- It's seriously dry. The Dry Valleys of Antarctica are the driest place on Earth, with low humidity and almost no snow or ice cover.
- There's a lot of wind. On average, Antarctica is the windiest continent. Winds in some places of the continent can reach 200 mph (320 km/h).
- It's a big place. Antarctica is the fifth largest continent.
1 day ago · The southernmost parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans meet the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean, the cold oceanic water mass below 60° S with unique biological and physical characteristics. Early penetration of this Southern Ocean in the search for fur seals led in 1820 to the discovery of the
- Location: Where is the Southern Ocean? The Southern Ocean is located in the southern hemisphere, south of 60 degrees South latitude. It surrounds Antarctica.
- Name: The Southern Ocean is also referred to as the Antarctic Ocean, South Polar Ocean or Austral Ocean. The Southern Ocean is the youngest ocean as it was formed 'only' 30 million years ago when South America and Antarctica moved apart.
- Size: How big is the Southern Ocean? The Southern Ocean is the fourth biggest (or second smallest) ocean on earth and covers only 6% of the earth’s surface.
- Depth: How deep is the Southern Ocean? The Southern is between 4,000m and 4,800m/12,000ft and 14,000ft deep with some deep trenches. The average depth is about 3,200m/10,700ft.
Jan 8, 2024 · Fast Fact. The Antarctic Convergence is an invisible climate boundary in the ocean between the Antarctic region and the rest of the ocean, where warm and cold water meet. Since it arose around 20 million years ago, there has been very little exchange of marine life across the convergence.
Jan 21, 2023 · The Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, is the large body of water surrounding Antarctica at the planet’s South Pole. It encompasses the southernmost portions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans and has a surface area of about 5,000,000 square miles.
![Antarctica Fun Facts [INFOGRAPHIC] - G Adventures](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=antarctic+ocean+facts&ei=UTF-8&norw=1&_tsrc=apple&age=1m&th=118.8&tw=73.1&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia-gadventures.global.ssl.fastly.net%2Fmedia-server%2Fdynamic%2Fblogs%2Fposts%2Fattit%2F2012%2F11%2Fantarctica-infographic.jpg&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gadventures.de%2Fblog%2Fantarctica-fun-facts%2F&size=720KB&name=Antarctica+Fun+Facts+%5BINFOGRAPHIC%5D+-+G+Adventures&oid=2&h=1301&w=800&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.6qWEBa6ZGVh8pecnf9gNYAHaMC%26pid%3DApi%26rs%3D1%26c%3D1%26qlt%3D95%26w%3D73%26h%3D118&tt=Antarctica+Fun+Facts+%5BINFOGRAPHIC%5D+-+G+Adventures&sigr=en4qN8C4oOQ.&sigit=hR8gFaYN26G1&sigi=9mRBnu3lgBBz&sign=6j1BVwAqvp0q&sigt=6j1BVwAqvp0q "Antarctica Fun Facts [INFOGRAPHIC] - G Adventures")
