Weddell Sea

The Antarctic sea with the clearest ocean water ever measured/Water

The Weddell Sea is a large bay in the Southern Ocean, bounded by the Antarctic Peninsula to the west and Coats Land to the east. It is one of the coldest and most hostile marine environments on Earth. In 1986, scientists measured the Weddell Sea's water clarity at a Secchi depth of 80 meters, the clearest ocean water ever recorded, nearly as transparent as distilled water. The sea is covered by a massive ice shelf and seasonal sea ice that can extend over 2 million square kilometers. Explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance was trapped and crushed by Weddell Sea pack ice in 1915; the wreck was discovered remarkably intact on the seafloor in 2022 at a depth of 3,008 meters.