Weddell Sea

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The large embayment of the Southern Ocean south of the South Atlantic, bounded by the Antarctic Peninsula to the west and Coats Land to the east, and the single largest source of Antarctic Bottom Water. Sea ice forms over its shelves through the winter and rejects brine into water already at its freezing point; the resulting shelf water is dense enough to sink to the deepest parts of the ocean. Repeat hydrographic sections show its bottom-water volume shrinking and its densest classes disappearing fastest.