TheBay of Whales was a natural iceharbour, oriceport, indenting the front of theRoss Ice Shelf just north ofRoosevelt Island,Antarctica, at the southernmost point of the world'socean. While the Ross Sea stretches considerably further south – encompassing theGould Coast, located around 320 kilometres (170 nautical miles) from theSouth Pole – the majority of this expanse is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, rather than open sea.
Ernest Shackleton named the feature on January 24, 1908, during theNimrod Expedition, because of the large number ofwhales seen near this location.
During hisquest for the South Pole,Norwegian explorerRoald Amundsen established a temporary base, which he namedFramheim, at the Bay of Whales. The base was used between January 1911 – February 1912, and was named after Amundsen's shipFram.[1]
The Bay of Whales was alogistical support base forRichard E. Byrd's first (1928–1930), second (1933–1935) andthird expedition (1939–1941)
The configuration of the Bay of Whales continuously changed. 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 theUSSAtka in January 1955, found thatcalving of theice shelf rendered the iceport temporarily unusable.
The Bay of Whales was entirely eliminated in 1987 when the 154-kilometre-long (83 nmi)Iceberg B-9 broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf.[2][3]
The Whale Bay Furrows, a series of undersea valleys on the centralRosscontinental shelf, were named in association with the Bay of Whales.[4]
78°30′S164°20′W / 78.500°S 164.333°W /-78.500; -164.333
This article incorporatespublic domain material from"Whales, Bay of".Geographic Names Information System.United States Geological Survey.| International | |
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