Haskell Strait refers to the ocean passage in southern

McMurdo Sound The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately from the South Pole. Captain James Clark Ross discovered the sound in February 1841 and named it after Lieutenant ...

, running between Cape Armitage,

Ross Island Ross Island is an island in Antarctica lying on the east side of McMurdo Sound and extending from Cape Bird in the north to Cape Armitage in the south, and a similar distance from Cape Royds in the west to Cape Crozier in the east. The isl ...

and

Cape Spencer-Smith White Island () is an island in the Ross Archipelago of Antarctica. It is long, protruding through the Ross Ice Shelf immediately east of Black Island. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04) and so named by ...

, White Island, Antarctica. Oceanographically, it separates McMurdo Sound from the ocean basin (ice shelf cavity) beneath 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 high ...

. The Strait itself is around 25 km wide and in places over 900 m deep. Currents of nearly half a knot have been measured in the Strait, although typical flows are lower. It is mostly covered by the ice of the McMurdo Ice Shelf and

fast ice Fast ice (also called ''land-fast ice'', ''landfast ice'', and ''shore-fast ice'') is sea ice or lake ice that is "fastened" to the coastline, to the sea floor along shoals, or to grounded icebergs.Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. B ...

in southern McMurdo Sound. On rare occasions sea-ice breakout exposes the north-west corner of the Strait which becomes navigable and vessels can actually moor off Scott Base.

Name

It is named after the New Zealand polar scientist Dr Timothy G. Haskell in 2009. It is unclear why it was not named previously as a strait. Possibly, this was because it is typically ice-covered and is dominated by the barrier (the McMurdo Ice Shelf). However, it dwarfs the other named ice-covered straits in the area - for example Moraine and White Straits which separate

Minna Bluff Minna Bluff () is a narrow, bold peninsula, long and wide, projecting southeast from Mount Discovery into the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04) which named it for Minna, the wif ...

from Black Island and White from Black Islands, respectively.

History

The Strait was the scene of great drama during the

Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often ci ...

Apsley Cherry-Garrard Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard (2 January 1886 – 18 May 1959) was an English explorer of Antarctica. He was a member of the Terra Nova Expedition, ''Terra Nova'' expedition and is acclaimed for his 1922 account of this expedition, ''T ...

describes Scott parties’ attempts to get themselves and their ponies off disintegrating sea ice, past patrolling orca, and onto the Barrier.

Scott Base Scott Base is a New Zealand Antarctic research station at Pram Point on Ross Island near Mount Erebus in New Zealand's Ross Dependency territorial claim. It was named in honour of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, RN, leader of two British exp ...

, the New Zealand scientific research station, was established during the International Geophysical Year 1957 and overlooks Haskell Strait.

Oceanography

As it is one of the southernmost large Straits in the world, it is heavily influenced by the Earth's rotation. It is also the western gateway to the Ross Ice Shelf cavity – an enormous, essentially unknown, body of water. The cavity is a major source of supercooled water, i.e. water chilled at great depths under the ice shelf which is then released to find itself colder than the freezing temperature. Such water influences sea ice growth which in turn affects climate processes at a global scale.

Notes

{{reflist Geography of Antarctica