Bering sea?
The Southern Ocean (that’s the modern standard name for it) – the area in the southernmost Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans that is wide-open straight around the world at the same parallel of latitude. Owing to this it is generally extremely stormy and dangerous.
I suspect the Bering is well up there on the danger list, though.
Or perhaps the Mar de Hoces (Sea of Sickles), more commonly known asDrake Passage, the body of water that lies between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. Many ships were lost there when “rounding the Horn” was the only sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific:
Presumably the Drake Passage is part of the Southern Ocean?
Presumably the OP wanted locations more precise than 7,848,000 square miles.
Dangerous based on what? As with all other “What’s the most [adjective] [noun] in the world?” threads, you have to define some measurable parameters.
For example, dangerous meaning: number of ships lost? Lives lost? Highest waves? Remoteness of location precluding any reasonable rescue? Icebergs? Underwater hazards? Pirates? etc, etc.
So, in terms of ‘dangerous’, what exactly constitutes ‘dangerous’ for your question?
Use your imagination.
OK then: The Sea of Love. When it’s good, it’s real good. But when it’s bad…
Autocracy?
Semen?
Heresy?
An insurgency?
Sure sounds like the Southern Ocean would qualify – that big current swirling the water around Antarctica moves a loooooooooooot of water.
Hey, speaking of which, is there any reason the two pieces of land that form the boundaries of the Drake Passage both appear to be swept back in the direction of the current flowing between them? Is it just a coincidence, or is there some causality there somewhere?
The Wiki article states that the passage was closed around 41 million years ago. Knowing that, it seems less than coincidence that the remaining landmasses are “swept” the same way.
Sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean – why would the separating of the continents cause the capes on either side to be “swept” in the same direction as the current?
250 million years ago, it was the Panthalassic Ocean, owing to the fact that it was the only one.
(bolding mine) That’s actually a very good point. The sea off the coast of Somalia, for example, is extremely dangerous these days due to piracy. It’s even gotten to the point where agents are outright refusing to deliver food aid.
The Andes and the West Antarctic Mountains are part of the same cordillera, the same series of mountain-chain upthrusts. During the Cenozoic Era, Antarctica and South America pulled apart along that chain, and the Sandwich Plate thrust itself between the two continental plates, pushing the present island arc (Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Is., South Georgia, South Sandwich Is., South Orkney Is., South Shetland Is., Graham Land, Palmer Land) eastward relative to the former line between them. (Actually, the island arc is the vulcanism result of the overthrust of the Sandwich Plate, not pieces of the former connection pushed ahead of it, but the concept remains the same.)
As for the dangerousness of the Drake Passage vs. the Southern Ocean as a whole, my understanding is that the whole area lying within the current circumnavigating Antarctica is extremely stormy and treacherous, but that unless one is responding to Cthulhu’s invitation to an open house at R’lyeh, the only part of it that will get regularly traversed by vessels is the Drake Passage – the southern limits of Australia and Africa being far enough north to afford sea room north of the dangerous area.
Understood. But my question is whether the fact that they appear to be swept to the east has anything to do with the massive current flowing to the east between them, or if that’s just a coincidence.