King Haakon VII Sea ( no, King Haakon VII Hav) is a proposed name for part of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

on the coast of

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost ...

Geography

The

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental organisation representing hydrography. , the IHO comprised 98 Member States. A principal aim of the IHO is to ensure that the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters a ...

(IHO), often recognized as the authority for worldwide water body names, does not include this sea name. The IHO 2002 draft was never approved by the IHO (or any other organization), and the 1953 IHO document (which does not contain the name) remains currently in force. Most leading geographic authorities and atlases do not use the name, including the 2014 10th edition World Atlas from the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

. By a narrow proposed definition, this sea would be between the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha ...

and a proposed

Lazarev Sea The Lazarev Sea (, ''More Lazareva'') is a proposed name for a marginal sea of the Southern Ocean. It would be bordered by two proposals from a 2002 International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) draft, a King Haakon VII Sea to the west and a Ri ...

name, and thus stretch only along

Princess Martha Coast Princess Martha Coast ( no, Kronprinsesse Märtha Kyst) is that portion of the coast of Queen Maud Land lying between 05° E and the terminus of Stancomb-Wills Glacier, at 20° W. The entire coastline is bounded by ice shelves with ice cliffs ...

from Cape Norvegia at 12°18′W, the easternmost point of the Weddell Sea, to

Fimbul Ice Shelf The Fimbul Ice Shelf is an Antarctic ice shelf about long and wide, nourished by Jutulstraumen Glacier, bordering the coast of Queen Maud Land from 3°W to 3°E. It was photographed from the air by the Third German Antarctic Expedition (1938 ...

close to the

Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...

at 0°0′, which is proposed as the western border of Lazarev Sea. From the Norwegian point of view, which also does not recognize

, King Haakon VII Sea is situated along the entire coast of

Queen Maud Land Queen Maud Land ( no, Dronning Maud Land) is a roughly region of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. It borders the claimed British Antarctic Territory 20° west and the Australian Antarctic Territory 45° east. In addit ...

between 20°W and 45°E and stretches for about from the Stancomb-Wills Glacier at 19°W on

in the west to

Shinnan Glacier Shinnan Glacier ( ja, 新南氷河, ''Shinnan Hyoga'') is a glacier which flows northwest to the coast just east of Shinnan Rocks and marks the division between Queen Maud Land and Enderby Land. Mapped from surveys and air photos by Japanese An ...

at 44°38′E on the eastern border of

Prince Olav Coast Prince Olav Coast ( no, Kronprins Olav Kyst) is that portion of the coast of Queen Maud Land between the east entrance point of Lutzow-Holm Bay, marked by the coastal angle at 40° E, and Shinnan Glacier at 44° 38' E. It was discovered by Capt. H ...

in the east.
David McGonigal, "Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent", 2009, Frances Lincoln Publishing, London, , accessdate=2010-10-28
Bernadette Hince, "The Antarctic dictionary: a complete guide to Antarctic English", 2000, Csiro Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, , accessdate=2010-10-28 The water here is covered by ice most of the year. During autumn

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fasten ...

forms which does not break up until spring. The rough coordinates of the proposed sea area would be . The area is an important

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

for the

Ross seal The Ross seal (''Ommatophoca rossii'') is a true seal (family Phocidae) with a range confined entirely to the pack ice of Antarctica. It is the only species of the genus ''Ommatophoca''. First described during the Ross expedition in 1841, it is ...

(''Ommatophoca rossii'')., Polar Conservation Organisation (PCO), accessdate=2010-10-28, American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), accessdate=2010-10-28

History

On 27 January 1820 Russian

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич Беллинсга́узен, translit=Faddéy Faddéevich Bellinsgáuzen; – ) was a Russian naval officer, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately ...

made the first confirmed sighting of

Terra Australis (Latin: '"Southern Land'") was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that ...

(

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

) as he was cruising this area near the

at Princess Märtha Coast., Polar Cruises.com, accessdate=2010-10-28
Antarctic-circle.org, accessdate=2010-10-28 The area is named in honour of Haakon VII of Norway, Haakon VII, the first king of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

after the dissolution from Sweden.

References

External links

Picture from the King Haakon VII Sea

Overview map of the area from NASA
{{List of seas Seas of the Southern Ocean East Antarctica

Geography

History

Further reading

References

External links