McMurdo Sound
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(′rös ′sē)
(geography) Arm of the South Pacific Ocean off Antarctica.
American Heritage Dictionary:
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Mc·Mur·do Sound
An inlet of the Ross Sea in Antarctica off the coast of Victoria Land. A U.S. research and exploration base is here.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Mc·Mur·do Sound
Ross Sea, arm of the Pacific Ocean, Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. It was discovered in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross, a British explorer. Ross Island with Mt. Erebus, an active volcano, is in the western part of the sea; Roosevelt Island is in the east. The Ross Sea's southern extension is the Ross Ice Shelf, a great frozen area whose 400-mi (644-km) seaward side is the source of huge icebergs. The Bay of Whales, the ice shelf's best known inlet, lasted for c.50 years and was the site of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's base for his trek to the South Pole in 1911; Little America, a U.S. base, was located nearby. McMurdo Sound, on the western side of Ross Sea, is usually free of pack ice in late summer; it has been the most important staging point for exploration and scientific investigation.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Ross Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land.
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Description
The Ross Sea 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.[1] 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 New Zealand to fall under the jurisdiction of the Ross Dependency, but few non-Commonwealth nations recognise this claim.
A 10 metre (32.8 feet) long colossal squid weighing 495 kilograms (1,091 lb) was captured in the Ross Sea on February 22, 2007.
Ecological importance and conservation
The flora and fauna are considered similar to other southern Antarctic marine regions. Particularly in Summer, the nutrient-rich sea water supports an abundant planktonic life in turn providing food for larger species, such as fish, seals, whales, and sea- and shore-birds.
The coastal parts of the sea contain a number of rookeries of Adélie and Emperor penguins, which have been observed at a number of places around the Ross Sea, both towards the coast and outwards in open sea.[2].
The Ross Sea is one of the last stretches of seas on Earth that remains relatively unaffected by human activities. Because of this, it is remains almost totally free from pollution, overfishing and the introduction of invasive species. Consequently, the Ross Sea has become a focus of numerous environmentalist groups who have campaigned to make the area a world marine reserve, citing the rare opportunity to protect the Ross Sea from a growing number of threats and destruction. The Ross Sea is regarded by marine biologists as having a very high biological diversity and as such has a long history of human exploration and scientific research.[3]
See also
References
External links
- J.Glausiusz, 2007, Raw Data: Beacon Bird of Climate Change. Discover Magazine.
- Gunn, B., nd, Geology The Ross Sea Dependency including Victoria-Land Ross Sea, Antarctica, Including the Ross Sea Dependency, the Sub-Antarctic Islands and sea, up to New Zealand from the Pole.
- K.Hansen, 2007, Paleoclimate: Penguin poop adds to climate picture. Geotimes.
- International Polar Foundation, 2007, Interview with Dr. Steven Emslie: The Adélie Penguins' Diet Shift. SciencePoles website.
- C.Michael Hogan. 2011. Ross Sea. Eds. P.Saundry & C.J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC
- Locarnini, R.A., 1995, the Ross Sea. Quarterdeck, vol. 1, no. 3.(Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.)
- "Nth Korean boats caught fishing in conservation area". Radio New Zealand. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/72356/nth-korean-boats-caught-fishing-in-conservation-area. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
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McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ross Sea.
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