Bodies of Water
The Southern Ocean
Also Known As Antarctic Ocean
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The Southern Ocean is the body of water encircling Antarctica, generally bounded at 60 degrees south latitude and defined less by coastlines than by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the powerful eastward flow that isolates Antarctic waters from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans to its north. The United States Board on Geographic Names and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formally recognized it as the world's fifth ocean in 2021, though older atlases folded its waters into the southern reaches of its three neighbors, and some scientific bodies still treat the boundary as a convention rather than a natural one.
Facts
Area (sq km) Maximum Depth (m)South Sandwich Trench, the ocean's deepest known point. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The Ross Sea is a marginal sea of the Southern Ocean, indenting the Antarctic coastline between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land.
This source names United States directly: "The United States Board on Geographic Names and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formally recognized it as the world's fifth ocean in 2021, though older atlases folded its waters..."
Demonstrates
Carries the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the strongest and most textbook example of wind- and density-driven ocean circulation.
On Continent
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