The Bay of Whales was a natural ice

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

, or iceport, indenting the front of the

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between hi ...

just north of

Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 85 ...

, Antarctica. It is the southernmost point of open ocean not only of the Ross Sea, but worldwide. The Ross Sea extends much further south – as far as the Gould Coast, some from the South Pole – but most of that area is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf rather than open sea.

Discovery and naming

Ernest Shackleton named the feature on January 24, 1908, during the Nimrod Expedition, because of the large number of whales seen near this location.

History

During his quest for the South Pole, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen established a temporary base, which he named

Framheim Framheim was the name of explorer Roald Amundsen's base at the Bay of Whales on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica during his successful quest for the South Pole. It was used between January 1911 and February 1912. Cabin and tents The hut wa ...

, at the Bay of Whales. The base was used between January 1911February 1912, and was named after Amundsen's ship '' Fram''. The Bay of Whales has also served as a logistical support base for several other important Antarctic expeditions, including: * 1928–1930: Richard Evelyn Byrd – first expedition * 1933–1935: Richard Evelyn Byrd – second expedition * 1939–1941: Richard Evelyn Byrd – third expedition The configuration of the Bay of Whales is continuously changing. A survey by the second Byrd expedition in 1934 determined that the feature lay at the junction of two separate ice systems, the movements of which are influenced by the presence of Roosevelt Island. Commander Glen Jacobsen, USN, who visited aboard the USS ''Atka'' in January 1955, found that calving of the ice shelf rendered the iceport temporarily unusable. The Bay of Whales was entirely eliminated in 1987 when the Iceberg B-9 broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf. The Whale Bay Furrows, a series of undersea valleys on the central Ross

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

, were named in association with the Bay of Whales.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whales, Bay of Ports and harbours of the Ross Dependency Bays of the Ross Dependency

Discovery and naming

History

See also

References