Southern Ocean - Ross SeaThe Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. It was discovered by James Ross in 1841. In the west of the Ross Sea is Ross Island with the Mt. Erebus volcano, in the east Roosevelt Island. The southern part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf. Roald Amundsen started his South Pole expedition in 1911 from the Bay of Whales, which was located at the shelf. In the west of the Ross sea, McMurdo Sound is a port which is usually free of ice during the summer. The southernmost part of the Ross Sea is Gould Coast, which is approximately two hundred miles from the Geographic South Pole.
All land masses in the Ross Sea are claimed by Britain and New Zealand to fall under the jurisdiction of the Ross Dependency, but few non-Commonwealth nations recognize this claim. At Ross Sea, a 10 metre (32.8 feet) long Colossal Squid which weighed 450 kilograms (992 lb) was captured in February 22nd 2007. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (an area of roughly 487 000 km2, and about 800 km across: about the size of Spain). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface. 90 percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface. Most of Ross Ice Shelf is located within the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand. The ice shelf was named after Captain James Clark Ross who discovered it on January 28th, 1841. It was originally named the 'Ice Barrier' as it prevented sailing further south. Ross mapped the ice front eastward to 160°W. The Ross Ice Shelf acquired a grimmer reputation in 1912, when it became the final resting place of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his party. Ross Island is an island formed by three volcanoes in the Ross Sea by Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound. Its area is 2,460 km². (950 sq miles.). Only a small portion of the island is free of ice and snow. Sir James Clark Ross discovered it in 1841, and it was later named in honour of him by Robert F. Scott. The dormant volcano Terror (3230 metres) and Erebus (3794 metres), the planet's southernmost active volcano, are situated on the island. They were named by Ross after his ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The third highest elevation is Mount Bird. Despite its tiny size, Ross Island is the world's 6th highest island. Ross Island was the base for many of the early expeditions to Antarctica. It was and still is the southernmost island reachable by sea. Huts built by Scott's and Shackleton's expeditions are still standing on the island, preserved as historical sites. In December 2003, paleontologists from St. Mary's College in California discovered the bones of a theropod dinosaur they nicknamed "Naze". The fast, carnivorous dinosaur, related to the Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, was about 1.8 metres (6 ft) tall, and weighed 300 lb (135 kg), which made it closer in size to the raptors of Jurassic Park fame than the coyote-sized Velociraptor. |
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