Bay of Whales

- 78.5 - 164.33333333333Koordinaten: 78 ° 30 ' S, 164 ° 20 ' W

The Bay of Whales is a bay in the Ross Ice Shelf just north of Roosevelt Island in Antarctica. It is the southernmost point open ocean not only of the Ross Sea, but worldwide. All further south sea areas are covered by the Filchner - Ronne Ice Shelf and the Ross Ice Shelf.

Precursor of the bay were the Borchgrevink Bay and the east of this location, so-called Barrier Inlet, during the Southern Cross Expedition (1898-1900) or during the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) were discovered. When searching for the Barrier Inlet by Ernest Shackleton during the Nimrod expedition was determined at position determinations on 24 January 1908 that both the fjord-like inlet and the Borchgrevink Bay had disappeared by breaking large masses of ice from the Ross Ice Shelf. The resulting bay named after Shackleton large number whales that have been sighted there. The nature of the bay is constantly changing. Research an expedition under the leadership of Richard Byrd of 1934 revealed that the village is situated on the junction of two different Eissysteme whose movements are influenced by the Roosevelt Island.

The natural harbor was used as base camp for Roald Amundsen's successful expedition to the South Pole in 1911, for the Antarctic expeditions Richard Byrd from 1928 to 1930, as the target of Lincoln Ellsworth ' Trans- Antarctic flight in 1935 and as a west base of the United States Antarctic Program by 1939 until 1941. Unlike Shackleton which ruled out a landing due to canceled, ice, Amundsen arrived three years later on stable ice conditions.