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50-664: The Nordenskjöld Coast was discovered by Otto Nordenskjöld , a Swedish explorer and geographer, and Carl Anton Larsen , a Norwegian explorer and whaler, during the Swedish Antarctic Expedition in 1901–1904. The name was suggested by Edwin Swift Balch in 1909, who was part of the Antarctic Exhibition alongside Dr. Nordenskjöld. The Nordenskjöld coast extends 50 miles west-southwest from Cape Longing to Drygalski Bay and Cape Fareweather, with Oscar II Coast located to

100-500: A Secchi disc visible at a depth of 80 metres (260 ft) on 13 October 1986 , ascertained that the clarity corresponded to that of distilled water. In his 1950 book The White Continent , historian Thomas R. Henry writes: "The Weddell Sea is, according to the testimony of all who have sailed through its berg-filled waters, the most treacherous and dismal region on Earth. The Ross Sea is relatively peaceful, predictable, and safe." He continues for an entire chapter, relating myths of

150-515: A barrier effect of winds in response to the mountains blocking its path. This effect means wind speed can accelerate to gale force. During the 1902 expedition they recorded speeds of hurricane force. The changes in ice shelf mass along the coast of the Peninsula, including the Nordenskjöld Coast, have been accelerated by the change in circumpolar currents. The warmer temperatures contributed to

200-541: A cabin on the island in 1902, where Nordenskiöld and three members of the expedition had to spend two winters. In 1915, Ernest Shackleton 's ship, Endurance , got trapped and was crushed by ice in this sea. After 15 months on the pack-ice Shackleton and his men managed to reach Elephant Island and safely returned home. In March 2022, it was announced that the well-preserved wreck of the Endurance had been discovered four miles (6.4 km) from its anticipated location, at

250-564: A connection between both regions and provide information about the Gondwana continent. The region of the Nordenskjöld Coast has particularly steep slopes on the coast, with high covered ice plateaus. Cape Sobral lies 12 miles from Cape longing. It is a high plank of rock that is projected above the water below, and is partly snow free. Behind Cape Sobral is a deep fiord that is surrounded by glaciers, which extends to Palmier Peninsula. Larsen Bay, which lies between Cape Sobral and Cape Longing, also has

300-612: A depth of 3,008 metres (9,869 ft). As with other neighboring parts of Antarctica, the Weddell Sea shares a common geological history with southernmost South America . In southern Patagonia at the onset of the Andean orogeny in the Jurassic extensional tectonics created the Rocas Verdes Basin , a back-arc basin whose surviving southeastward extension forms the Weddell Sea. In

350-490: A doctorate in geology in 1894, and later became a lecturer and then associate professor in the university's geology department. Otto Nordenskjöld led mineralogical expeditions to Patagonia in the 1890s, and to Alaska and the Klondike area in 1898. Nordenskjöld led the 1901–1904 Swedish Antarctic Expedition . Their ship Antarctic , commanded by the seasoned Antarctic sailor Carl Anton Larsen , visited Buenos Aires and

400-414: A fiord in the middle of its shoreline. Cape Ruth is an area of high peaks that leads to the eastern entrance of Drygalski Bay. The fiord behind Cape Ruth forms the head of Dryglaski Bay.   There is evidence of a plate-boundary on the eastern margin of the peninsula during the breakup of Gondwana. A strike-slip formation found by Whitham and Storey in 1989 proves the placement of this boundary as well as

450-506: A formula for identifying the boundaries of the Arctic region based on the temperatures in the warmest and coldest months of the year. Nordenskjöld was killed in a traffic collision at the age of 58 when he was hit by a bus driver in Gothenburg , where he was also buried. A number of geographical features have been named after Otto Nordenskiöld, including: Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea

500-515: A northward flowing current. This northward current is the western section of a primarily wind-driven, cyclonic gyre called the Weddell Gyre . This northward flow serves as the primary force of departure of water from the Weddell Sea, a major site of ocean water modification and deep water formation, to the remainder of the World Ocean. The Weddell Gyre is a cold, low salinity surface layer separated by

550-445: A thin, weak pycnocline from a thick layer of relatively warm and salty water referred to as Weddell Deep Water (WDW), and a cold bottom layer. Circulation in the Weddell Sea has proven difficult to quantify. Geopotential surface heights above the 1000 dB level, computed using historical data, show only very weak surface currents. Similar computations carried out using more closely spaced data also showed small currents. Closure of

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600-470: Is a possibility of a strike-slip formation based on evidence of deformation, dewatering and lithification. The deformation period was during Tithonian times, and provides further evidence of a plate boundary caused by the break-up of Gondwana along the eastern peninsula. The Nordenskjöld formation went through a significant burial period before the Miocene time which brought on uplifting and block faulting, exposing

650-488: Is located to the south. The Larsen A ice shelf experienced a major disintegration in 1995, which triggered the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002. This then triggered an acceleration of the flow from outlet glaciers feeding into the ice shelves, accounting for the continuous loss in mass. Larsen A ice shelf is a narrow strip of floating ice between the Nordenskjöld Coast and Seal Nunatuks. There are smaller ice shelves along

700-593: 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 Coast , Queen Maud Land . To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea . Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent, massive ice shelf field,

750-575: Is the dominant penguin species in this remote area because of their adaptation to the harsh environment. A colony of more than 100,000 pairs of Adélies can be found on volcanic Paulet Island . Around 1997, the northernmost emperor penguin colony was discovered just south of Snowhill Island in the Weddell Sea. As the Weddell Sea is often clogged with heavy pack-ice, strong ice-class vessels equipped with helicopters are required to reach this colony. In 2021, sponges and other unidentified suspension feeders were reported to have been found growing under

800-780: The Falkland Islands before leaving Nordenskjöld's party at Snow Hill Island off the Antarctic Peninsula to overwinter, while the ship returned to the Falklands. The following spring, early in November 1902, Larsen sailed south to retrieve the party, but the Antarctic became trapped in ice and so damaged it eventually sank on 12 February 1903, forcing the crew to winter in a hastily constructed shelter on Paulet Island . Larsen and Nordenskjöld finally rendezvoused at their fall-back rescue hut at Hope Bay in November 1903 and were soon picked up by

850-648: The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf . The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentine Antarctica , the British Antarctic Territory , and also resides partially within the Antarctic Chilean Territory . At its widest the sea is around 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) across, and its area is around 2.8 million square kilometres (1.1 × 10 ^  sq mi). Various ice shelves, including

900-721: The Late Cretaceous the tectonic regime of Rocas Verdes Basin changed leading to its transformation into a compressional foreland basin – the Magallanes Basin – in the Cenozoic . While this happened in South America the Weddell Sea part of the basin escaped compressional tectonics and remained an oceanic basin. The Weddell Sea is one of few locations in the World Ocean where deep and bottom water masses are formed to contribute to

950-602: The Antarctic climate to be glacial, compared to continental or maritime. The expedition found new information about the geological makeup of the Antarctic Peninsula, explaining how the landforms were created. The expedition led to the discovery of fossiliferous rocks deposited during the Cretaceous and Tertiary age. It found that the area was a cordilleran belt of folded strata, overlain by sedimentary rocks and volcanic beds from

1000-508: The Antarctic land masses. They are made from the slow buildup of ice, growing into larger bodies of ice. The Antarctic Peninsula has numerous ice shelves called the Larsen A, B and C . The Larsen C ice shelf at the southern end of the Antarctic Peninsula remains the most intact to this day. The flow of grounded ice into the Antarctic Ocean is regulated by the ice shelves. Scientists can enhance

1050-589: The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, fringe the Weddell sea. Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula , which formerly covered roughly 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) of the Weddell Sea, had completely disappeared by 2002. The Weddell Sea has been deemed by scientists to have the clearest water of any sea. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute , on finding

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1100-523: The Mesozoic time. This discovery, during the 1901 expedition, led scientists Dalziel and Elliot (1971,1973) to further amplify the theory of the Pacific crust subduction under the western continental margin. The Nordenskjöld coast is located in eastern Graham Land , at the top of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic Peninsula has undergone intense arc magnetism dating back to Jurassic times. The local basement of

1150-555: The Nordenskjöld coast and further south which have since remained intact. The ice shelves remain in four basins along the coast: Dryglaski, Edgeworth, Pyke and Sjögren. All of them are losing mass except for the Pyke Glacier. The ice shelf collapse in 2002 triggered a perturbation of a massive accelerated flow. The instability of the ice shelves' mass can be traced back to changes in climate. The Larsen B ice shelf has contributed to 17% of

1200-486: The Swedish Expedition in 1902, Otto Nordenskjöld found that these winds are present along the entire coast of the Peninsula. These strong, cold winds are due to the semi-permanent Weddell Sea pressure cell. The Weddell Sea is one of the coldest masses in the ocean. This tends to build up in this area due to the damming-up effect against the high slopes on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The coast experiences

1250-457: The Weddell Sea. Otto Nordenskiöld , leader of the 1901–1904 Swedish Antarctic Expedition , spent a winter at Snow Hill with a team of four men when the relief ship became beset in ice and was crushed. The crew managed to reach Paulet Island where they wintered in a primitive hut. Nordenskiöld and the others were eventually picked up by the Argentine Navy at Hope Bay . All but one survived

1300-520: The area once again. Between Cape Longing and Cape Sobral, the Nordenskjöld formation is, at its thickest, around 450 cm. It is characterised by ash beds and radiolarian-rich mudstones, around 580m deep. Reports of new calcisphere species, microorganisms that allow scientists to determine time and place in relation to the breakup of Gondwana, found throughout the Nordenskjöld formation, have previously been reported in Indonesia and Argentina. This suggests

1350-719: The corvette ARA Uruguay (commanded by Julián Irízar ), dispatched after Antarctic had failed to make its appointed return to Argentina. Despite its end and the great hardships endured, the expedition was considered a scientific success, having explored much of the eastern coast of Graham Land , including Cape Longing , James Ross Island , the Joinville Island group , and the Palmer Archipelago , recovering also valuable geological samples and samples of marine animals. It earned Nordenskjöld lasting fame at home, but its huge cost left him greatly in debt. In 1905, Nordenskjöld

1400-683: The disintegration of the ice sheet along the Antarctic Peninsula. The melting of the Larsen Ice Shelf has contributed to ocean mass; the Larsen A and B ice shelves that fell in 1995 and 2002 were of considerable mass. ThenNorthern area of the Antarctic Peninsula, including the Nordenskjöld Coast, Trinity Peninsula and the off-laying islands, are particularly vulnerable to varying climatic gradients. The Nordenskjöld Coast experiences low levels of rain, and yearly snowfall. Humidity can reach high levels, with temperatures above freezing. Permafrost (permanent frozen ground) and seasonal thaw-activity are

1450-431: The east side of the Antarctic Peninsula can appear in two different types of synoptic-meteorological situations: an intense cyclone over the central Weddell Sea, a broad east to west flow of stable cold air in the lowest 500-to-1000-metre layer of the atmosphere over the central and/or southern Weddell Sea toward the peninsula. These conditions lead to cold air piling up on the east edge of the mountains. This process leads to

1500-520: The formation of a high-pressure ridge over the peninsula (mainly east of the peak) and, therefore, a deflection of the originally westward current of air to the right, along the mountain wall. The Weddell Sea is abundant with whales and seals. Characteristic fauna of the sea include the Weddell seal and killer whales , humpback whales , minke whales , leopard seals , and crabeater seals are frequently seen during Weddell Sea voyages. The Adélie penguin

1550-399: The global thermohaline circulation which has been warming slowly over the last decade. The characteristics of exported water masses result from complex interactions between surface forcing, significantly modified by sea ice processes, ocean dynamics at the continental shelf break, and slope and sub-ice shelf water mass transformation. Circulation in the western Weddell Sea is dominated by

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1600-456: The green-haired merman sighted in the sea's icy waters, the inability of crews to navigate a path to the coast until 1949, and treacherous "flash freezes" that left ships, such as Ernest Shackleton 's Endurance , at the mercy of the ice floes . The sea is named after the Scottish sailor James Weddell (1787-1834), who entered the sea in 1823 and originally named it after King George IV ; it

1650-401: The gyre circulation was assumed to be driven by Sverdrup transport . The Weddell Sea is a major site for deep water formation. Thus, in addition to a wind-driven gyre component of the boundary current, a deeper circulation whose dynamics and transports reflect an input of dense water in the southern and southwestern Weddell Sea are expected. Available data does not lend to the quantification of

1700-531: The magmatic arc is made of Greywake-shale formations and Metasedimentary sequences, extending to parts of the Trinity Peninsula located next to the Nordenskjöld Coast. Metamorphic rocks can be found at the boundary of the Mesozoic – Cenozoic magmatic arc. Antarctica used to be part of the supercontinent Gondwana . The Nordenskjöld formation between Cape Longing and Cape Sobral consists of Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous anoxic mudstones and air-fall ashes. There

1750-530: The main indicators of climate change. There is a correlation between the mean annual temperatures of the arctic and the boundaries of permafrost on the Antarctic Peninsula, meaning that rising temperatures impact the mass of permafrost. Permafrost can survive if the mean annual temperature remains − 2.5 °C. Due to global warming , permafrost levels have become unstable, and there is a historic degradation of permafrost levels all over Antarctica. Ice shelves are permanent floating ice sheets that are extended from

1800-617: The mass depletion rate of the Antarctic Peninsula. The decline in mass from the Larsen A and Larsen B ice shelves have contributed to sea ice, atmosphere and ocean changes. With temperatures changing, so do the ice shelves; accelerated melting occurs, subsequently changing ocean masses and temperatures. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from "Nordenskjöld Coast" . Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey .   [REDACTED] Otto Nordenskj%C3%B6ld Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjöld (6 December 1869 – 2 June 1928)

1850-544: The modern era was made by William Speirs Bruce in 1903. The Weddell Sea is an important area of deep water mass formation through cabbeling , the main driving force of the thermohaline circulation . Deepwater masses are also formed through cabbeling in the North Atlantic and are caused by differences in temperature and salinity of the water. In the Weddell sea, this is brought about mainly by brine exclusion and wind cooling. In 1823, British sailor James Weddell discovered

1900-438: The ordeal. The Antarctic Sound is named after the expedition ship of Otto Nordenskiöld. The sound that separates the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula from Dundee Island is also referred to as "Iceberg Alley", because of the huge icebergs that are often seen here. Snowhill Island, located east of the Antarctic Peninsula is almost completely snow-capped, hence its name. The Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskiöld built

1950-439: The party spent a month dedicated to sea voyage, then settled on an Island called Snow Hill Island , located off the Trinity Peninsula , next to the Nordenskjöld coast at the top of the Antarctic Peninsula. Due to the harsh weather conditions and the loss of necessary transport, when their boat sunk, the expedition could not explore the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula until springtime in the following September. Nordenskjöld found

2000-415: The peninsula, have decreased significantly in recent years. The Larsen A ice shelf that was extended from the Nordenskjöld Coast disintegrated in 1995. There are now only a few small ice caps remaining along the Nordenskjöld coast. Otto Nordenskjöld and the expedition left Sweden on 16 September 1901 to explore Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula . They traveled on a boat called the Antarctic . In 1902

2050-463: The processes that control the way atmospheric changes affect the ice shelves. With satellite altimeter studies, which records the density and surface lowering of ice shelves, they can better understand the loss of mass on the shelves. This allows ocean divers and other scientists to better estimate the sea level changes. The Larsen A ice shelf is an extension of the Nordenskjold Coast; Larsen B

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2100-522: The product of the radioactive decay of an isotope to determine the time period, from the Schists that line the Nordenskjöld Coast has found that a metamorphic event, a process of heating and cooling sediments which ultimately changes their composition, happened around the Permian times, estimating its peak at 245-250 Ma. The climate of the Nordenskjöld Coast is an ice cap climate , which means that all 12 months of

2150-408: The south. The Nordenskjöld Coast faces the Weddell Sea at the top of the Antarctic continent. The thinness of the Antarctic Peninsula and its northerly location makes it prone to change due to global warming. The length and thickness of the ice sheet connected to the Nordenskjöld coast is monitored to track fluctuating climate patterns. Ice shelves, called the Larsen shelves, found on the eastern side of

2200-607: The spreading of the Weddell Sea Region, off the Antarctic Peninsula, and the change from fine anoxic to coarse clastic sedimentation. The Antarctic Peninsula was an active volcanic arc between the Late Jurassic and Tertiary period, created from the south-eastward subduction of the Panthalassa crust, the super ocean that surrounded the supercontinent of Pangaea . The finding from Potassium-argon or K-Ar dating , which measures

2250-519: The temperature regime east of the peninsula but also because they force the drift of ice northeastward into the South Atlantic Ocean as the last branch of the clockwise circulation in the lower layers of the atmosphere along the coasts of the Weddell Sea. The sharp contrast between the wind, temperature, and ice conditions of the two sides of the Antarctic Peninsula has been well known for many years. Strong surface winds directed equatorward along

2300-514: The volume transports associated with this western boundary region, or to the determination of deep convective circulation along the western boundary. The predominance of strong surface winds parallel to the narrow and tall mountain range of the Antarctic Peninsula is a remarkable feature of weather and climate in the area of the western Weddell Sea. The winds carry cold air toward lower latitudes and turn into southwesterlies farther north. These winds are of interest not only because of their effect on

2350-403: The year average a temperature below 0 °C. Along the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 50 years the mean temperature has increased by 3.4 degrees Celsius and the mid winter temperature by 6 degrees. This makes the Antarctic region one of the global hotspots for climate change. Due to the steep mountains that line the Antarctic Peninsula, the south-west winds are cold and strong. First noted in

2400-607: Was a Swedish geologist, geographer, and polar explorer . Nordenskjöld was born in Hässleby in Småland in eastern Sweden, in a family that included his maternal uncle, the polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , and cousin Gustaf Nordenskiöld . His father and mother were cousins, but his father's family name was "Nordenskjöld", while his mother's family name was spelled "Nordenskiöld". He studied at Uppsala University , obtaining

2450-525: Was appointed professor of geography (with commercial geography) and ethnography at University of Gothenburg . Nordenskjöld later explored Greenland in 1909 and returned to South America to explore Chile and Peru in the early 1920s (many samples from this expedition are now displayed at the Natural History Museum in Lima ). He also studied the effects of winter on alpine climate , and developed

2500-521: Was renamed in Weddell's honour in 1900. Also in 1823, the American sealing captain Benjamin Morrell claimed to have seen land some 10–12° east of the sea's actual eastern boundary. He called this New South Greenland , but its existence was disproved when the sea was more fully explored in the early 20th century. Weddell got as far south as 74°S ; the furthest southern penetration since Weddell but before

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