Southern Ocean

A large body of recent oceanographic research has shown that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica, plays a crucial role in global ocean circulation. The region where the cold waters of the ACC meet and mingle with the warmer waters of the north defines a distinct border - the Antarctic Convergence - which fluctuates with the seasons, but which encompasses a discrete body of water and a unique ecologic region. The Convergence concentrates nutrients, which promotes marine plant life, and which in turn allows for a greater abundance of animal life. In the spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization decided to delimit the waters within the Convergence as a fifth world ocean - the Southern Ocean - by combining the southern portions of the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. The Southern Ocean extends from the coast of Antarctica north to 60 degrees south latitude, which coincides with the Antarctic Treaty Limit and which approximates the extent of the Antarctic Convergence. As such, the Southern Ocean is now the fourth largest of the world’s five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean, but larger than the Arctic Ocean). It should be noted that inclusion of the Southern Ocean does not imply recognition of this feature as one of the world’s primary oceans by the US Government.

If I can find the time, I will research and write an article about the Southern Ocean, focusing on it from this website’s perspective. With nearly two dozen websites to develop, I’m simply overwhelmed. But now that I’ve completed a major upgrade (May 2009) of most of my websites, I’m once again focusing on content, attacking it witih a combination of articles, databases and blogs.

In the meantime, if you can’t find whatever you’re looking for here, you might click the Regions and/or Children tabs above (if any) and explore some of those links. Note, also, the WebRing links near the bottom of the page.

Finally, you can try my new, improved and expanded search pages, where you can search this website, a combination of sites or the entire web. (See the Search link at the top of the page.)

Good general references include Wikipedia > Southern Ocean. For current events, try Google News > Southern Ocean. (However, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the corporate media, particularly on socio-political issues.)

Thanks for bearing with me, and please check back now and then. :)

David Blomstrom -- May 7, 2009

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