Cooperation, Sea of

Cooperation, Sea of 

a part of the Indian sector of the Antarctic (Southern) Ocean, off the coast of Eastern Antarctica, between Enderby Land and the West Ice Shelf. Area, approximately 260,000 sq km.

The southern part of the Sea of Cooperation is shallow, with depths less than 500 m; in the north, however, depths may exceed 3,000 m. Much of the icy coastline is extremely unstable; in 1964, when a gigantic iceberg broke away from the Amery Ice Shelf, the coastline in Prydz Bay retreated by as much as 60 to 70 km along a lateral front of more than 160 km. The Sea of Cooperation is covered with drift ice most of the year; icebergs are common, especially in the west.

Australia’s Mawson and Davis scientific stations are located on the seacoast. Participants in the Soviet Antarctic expeditions named this part of the ocean the Sea of Cooperation in 1962 in commemoration of the joint research conducted by the Antarctic expeditions of various states.