Bellingshausen Sea

{{Short description|Part of the Southern Ocean along the Antarctic Peninsula}}

File:Antarctic-seas-en.svg]]

File:Bellingshausen_Sea_shaded_and_IHO_proposal.svg definition (proposed)]]

The Bellingshausen Sea is an area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island (there the southern Vostokkysten).[http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=107742 Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Antarctic Gazetteer: Bellingshausen Sea] The Bellingshausen Sea borders the Eights Coast, the Bryan Coast, and the west part of the English Coast in Antarctica. To the west of Cape Flying Fish it joins the Amundsen Sea.

Bellingshausen Sea has an area of {{convert|487,000|km2|abbr=on}} and reaches a maximum depth of {{convert|4.5|km|sp=us}}.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110823210609/http://ostranah.com/lists/sea.php?id=18 Gazetteer «About countries»: Bellingshausen (sea)] It contains the undersea plain Bellingshausen Plain.

The Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) is thought to originate in the Bellingshausen Sea as the result of a density front at the shelf break, rather than being wind-driven.{{Cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=Andrew F. |last2=Speer |first2=Kevin G. |last3=Schulze Chretien |first3=Lena M. |date=2020-08-28 |title=Genesis of the Antarctic Slope Current in West Antarctica |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/a4mft-xj680/files/2020GL087802.pdf?download=1 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |language=en |volume=47 |issue=16 |doi=10.1029/2020GL087802 |bibcode=2020GeoRL..4787802T |issn=0094-8276}}

It takes its name from Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who explored in the area in 1821.

In the early Pleistocene Epoch, about 2.15 million years ago, the Eltanin asteroid (about 1-4 km in diameter) impacted at the edge of the Bellingshausen sea (at the Southern Ocean). This is the only known impact in a deep-ocean basin in the world.{{cite journal |last=Gersonde |first=Rainer |author2=F. T. Kyte |author3=T. Frederichs |author4=U. Bleil |author5=H.-W. Schenke |author6=G. Kuhn |year=2005 |title=The late pleistocene impact of the Eltanin asteroid into the Southern Ocean – Documentation and environmental consequences |journal=Geophysical Research Abstracts |volume=7 |id=1607-7962/gra/EGU05-A-02449 |url=http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU05/02449/EGU05-J-02449.pdf |access-date=2008-06-22}}