Southern Ocean

[suhth-ern oh-shuhn]

noun

1. the waters surrounding Antarctica, comprising the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, with its deepest section in the South Sandwich Trench. 8,478,800 square miles (21,960,000 square kilometers).

Southern Ocean

noun

1. another name for the Antarctic Ocean

Word History and Origins

Origin of Southern Ocean¹

First recorded in 1660–70, referring to any southern sea; current sense dates from 1700–10

Example Sentences

Vessel captain Will Whatley said during the tour that it was "designed for icebreaking and is very capable", noting the crew can keep working even in "really stormy" Southern Ocean seas.

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At MARE, University of Lisbon, Dr. Catarina V. Guerreiro leads studies to trace how aerosol-driven fertilization shapes the distribution of coccolithophores across the Atlantic into the Southern Ocean, and what that means for the ocean's carbon pumps today and in recent times.

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That is what an international team of particularly adventurous researchers did earlier this year in the remote Antarctic Peninsula, on a mission aiming to reveal centuries of scientific secrets about the Southern Ocean.

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Scientists have spent years probing the animal's annual migration in Antarctic waters, or the Southern Ocean, and what it means for climate change.

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The findings are "remarkable", says lead author Dr Guang Yang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, adding that it forces a re-think about how much carbon the Southern Ocean stores.

Read more on BBC