The Scotia Sea is partly in the Southern Ocean and mostly in the Atlantic Ocean between Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, the Antarctic Peninsula, and bordered on the west by Drake Passage.
Named in about 1932 after the Scotia, the expedition ship used in these waters by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-04) under William S. Bruce.
Habitually stormy and cold, the most famous traverse of this frigid sea was made in 1916 by Sir Ernest Shackleton and four others in a lifeboat (named James Caird) when they left Elephant Island and reached South Georgia two weeks later.
The Argentines call the Scotia Sea "Mar Argentino", the Argentina sea, and many of the territories claimed by Argentina such as South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, lie within this region.
On 20th August 2006. an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck at 1:41 a.m. local time (0341 GMT). The exact location was 61.011°South, 34.375°West at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).
The notorious Drake Passage runs through the Scotia Sea.
Named for the English navigator, Sir France Drake, the Drake Passage is a somewhat narrow body of water between Antarctica and South America that serves as an ocean-going connecting point between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
This violent stretch of chaotic water between Antarctica and South America, one frequented by icebergs, huge waves and plagued by gale-force winds, is crossed by all sailors with great trepidation. Many still prefer to use the still dangerous, but more sheltered Strait of Magellan.
The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 subsequently reduced the need for maritime travel around Cape Horn, and through the Drake Passage, the notorious site of many ship wreaks and the final resting place of countless sailors lost in its perilous waters.
