Amundsen Sea

The Amundsen Sea area of Antarctica
Antarctic iceberg, Amundsen Sea

The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It is bounded by Cape Flying Fish, the northwestern tip of Thurston Island to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. East of Cape Flying Fish starts the Bellingshausen Sea. The sea is named for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.[1]

The sea is mostly ice-covered. The ice sheet which drains into the Amundsen Sea averages about 3 km (1.9 mi) in thickness. It is roughly the size of the state of Texas. The area is known as the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE). It forms one of the three major ice drainage basins of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

  1. "Amundsen Sea". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 23 October 2011.

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