Islands of the Southern Ocean
Sometimes described as the fifth ocean, or as the Antarctic Ocean, the world-wrapping Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the Earth's major oceans — the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans — where they converge to wrap around the continent of Antarctica.
Technically the Southern Ocean has been described as comprising all those waters existing south of the latitude of 60° South, although traditional definitions are often loose and in some cases can include waters lapping the southern coasts of Australia.
For the purposes of this site the boundaries are extended north of 60° S to include the islands of the far southern Indian and Atlantic oceans — the so-called Sub-Antarctic islands which have traditionally been studied by Antarctic researchers and explorers. Specifically, this includes the islands of the far southern reaches of the Indian Ocean: Heard Island, the Prince Edward Islands, the Îles Kerguelen, Amsterdam & St. Paul, and the Crozet Islands; Bouvetøya, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the Atlantic; Macquarie Island, Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands at the meeting point of the southeastern Indian Ocean and southwestern Pacific.
At some 20 million km² in area, the Southern Ocean is the second smallest of the Earth's oceans and is around 6 million km² larger that its northern counterpart, the Arctic Ocean. Its waters are dominated by the 21,000 km long Antarctic Circumpolar Current — the world's greatest ocean current in terms of both length and volume of water transported.
The islands of the Southern Ocean include some of the remotest and least hospitable islands on Earth.