Bellingshausen - sea-riddle: description, description, study

The Bellingshausen Sea in the Pacific Ocean is entirely south of the Arctic Circle, smoothly and superficially crashing its southern part in the Antarctic coast, and occupies the extreme south-eastern part of the largest water body. The northern boundary is rather conditional and open to the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Short description

In the Bellingshausen Sea, the largest island, among the islands of the Antarctic seas, is Alexander I Island. The coastal line is mountainous and entirely covered with glaciers. The scientist opened the sea, whose name it bears - Bellingshausen. The navigator was a Baltic German from a noble family.

The continental slope is steep and the shelf depths start from the marks of 4 to 5 hundred meters, gradually passing into a small bed of the sea with a depth of about 3200 m, the depth increases in the direction of the ocean and reaches a maximum of 4470 m.

An attractive feature of these places is the air that is wonderful for cleanliness and freshness and an incredibly transparent and deep starry sky.

Rest with the family is hardly appropriate in this area, but there is a decent number of travel agencies offering trips to the sea for those wishing to visit such wonderful places. Specializing in travel companies gladly talk more about this water area, and some of the most interesting information can be found in this short article.

Climatic conditions

Even the pronunciation of the words "Antarctica", "polar circle", "Bellingshausen sea", "iceberg" brings freshness and coolness, but such is the harsh climate reality in these latitudes. Bellingshausen is a sea that has been packed almost all year round with ice almost completely, only by summer, and more precisely from February to March, its waters adjacent to the open part of the ocean are freed from the ice cover. They are rich in floating ice and icebergs, which sometimes reach a gigantic size.

The climate is severe. Year-round air above the sea is dominated by air masses from the mainland Antarctica, lowering the temperature in the winter months from -12 ⁰ C over the island of Peter I, to -20 ⁰ C on the southern coast (extreme values -30 ⁰ C in the north and up to -42 ⁰ C in the southern Parts of the sea). The isotherm of the summer months ranges from 0 to +4 ⁰ C in January and from -2 ⁰ C to -6 ⁰ C in February, which is explained by weak air exchange with adjacent Pacific air masses. Bellingshausen - the sea, whose water temperature in winter almost throughout the water area below the freezing point, only in the summer months the upper layer "warms up" to -1 degrees. Salinity of water is about 34 ppm.

Flora

The flora and fauna of these places due to severe climatic conditions are rather meager. Of the terrestrial vegetation in the northern part of the island of Peter the Great, on stony, uncovered parts of the land there are several species of mosses and lichens. Bellingshausen is a sea, the vegetation in the northern part of which consists of phytoplankton and several species of blue-green algae.

Fauna

The fauna is somewhat richer, the representatives of which live on the coast and in the adjoining waters. From mammals here you can meet in summer a sea leopard, a sea elephant, a polar crab (seal), a sea seal, a seal of Wadell. In the depths of the sea there are sponges and some species of echinoderms, several families of fish, for example, Notothenia. The open part of the sea in the northern part is rich in krill and zooplankton, which attracts whales. These "pastures" are inhabited: seyval, humpback, fin whale, there is also the largest and most powerful representative of the animal world of our planet - the blue whale. The feathered community is represented by petrels and skuas, on land dwelling penguins. In the summer months, especially on the islands, numerous enough nests of fools, polar terns and Vilsen geese nest.

Who discovered the Bellingshausen Sea?

The honor of the discovery of Antarctica belongs to the famous and glorified Russian navigator and explorer FF Bellingshausen. And before him were numerous attempts to reach the southern mainland, which were not crowned with success. It was Bellingshausen, by the order of Emperor Alexander l, in conjunction with M.P. Lazarev in the 20-ies of the XIX century on two ships, little adapted for ice hikes, went on a voyage. Bellingshausen was the first to reach the mainland part of the Antarctic. He conducted numerous studies of the mainland coastline, made many discoveries in the field of geography and hydrology. The scientist was able to find out where the Bellingshausen Sea lies and indicate its exact coordinates. The name of the great traveler and scientist is immortalized on the geographical maps of the Earth. His name is the sea off the coast of Antarctica, two islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, the cape on Sakhalin, the shelf ice in the Antarctic. Bellingshausen's name is the first Soviet, and now Russian, research station on the coldest continent.

Recreation and Science

Bellingshausen is a sea, which, probably, is strange, but lately it has attracted the attention of tourists. Especially the island of Petra l. Argentine and New Zealand tour operators willingly organize tours for fans of extreme recreation, delivering people on an excursion to these latitudes on ships of the Antarctic class. Much is said by the fact that for all time from the opening up to 2006 inclusive there were only about 400 people, and in the following years the number of tourists visited here exceeded 2000 people.

The value of scientific research in the Antarctic, notably in the light of climate problems and global warming, is also not diminishing.