Bellingshausen Sea

The Bellingshausen Sea is an area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island (there the southern Vostokkysten).

To the west of Cape Flying Fish it joins the Amundsen Sea.

The Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) is thought to originate in the Bellingshausen Sea as the result of a density front at the shelf break, rather than being wind-driven.

[3] It takes its name from Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who explored in the area in 1821.

In the early Pleistocene Epoch, about 2.15 million years ago, the Eltanin asteroid (about 1-4 km in diameter) impacted at the edge of the Bellingshausen sea (at the Southern Ocean).