Bellingshausen Sea
The Bellingshausen Sea is a sea area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island. To the west of Cape Flying Fish it joins the Amundsen Sea.
In the south are, from west to east, Eights Coast and Bryan Coast of Ellesworth Land and the westernmost parts of the English Coast, the latter within the British Antarctic Territory.
The Bellingshausen Sea, covering some 188,000 square miles, reaches a maximum depth of 2.8 miles,[1] and contains an undersea plain known as the 'Bellingshausen Plain'. It takes its name from Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, the Russian admiral who explored in the area in 1821.
Geology
It is believed that in the late Pliocene Epoch, about 2.15 million years ago, an asteroid (about a mile to two and a half miles in diameter impacted at the edge of the Bellingshausen Sea. This would be the only known impact in a deep-ocean basin in the world.[2]
Outside links
- Location map: 71°0’0"S, 85°0’0"W
- NASA Bellinghausen Sea satellite photo
- Bellinghausen Sea climatological low pressure system
References
- ↑ Gazetteer «About countries»: Bellingshausen (sea)
- ↑ Gersonde, Rainer; F. T. Kyte; T. Frederichs; U. Bleil; H.-W. Schenke; G. Kuhn (2005). "The late Pliocene impact of the Eltanin asteroid into the Southern Ocean – Documentation and environmental consequences". Geophysical Research Abstracts 7. 1607-7962/gra/EGU05-A-02449. http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU05/02449/EGU05-J-02449.pdf. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Bellingshausen Sea