Riiser-Larsen Sea is a marginal sea

Marginal sea

The term marginal sea has differing meanings. In one sense the term is equivalent to territorial waters. In another sense the term indicates a partially enclosed sea adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean, but bounded by submarine ridges...

 of the Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...

. It is located between the Lazarev Sea

Lazarev Sea

The Lazarev sea is a marginal sea of the Southern Ocean. It is located between the King Haakon VII Sea to the west and the Riiser-Larsen Sea to the east, or between the Prime Meridian of 0°0' and 14°E. The prevailing depth is 3000 meters, and the maximum depth exceeds 4500 meters. It stretches over...

 to the west and the Cosmonauts Sea

Cosmonauts Sea

Cosmonauts Sea, sometimes misspelled Cosmonaut Sea, is a sea of the Southern Ocean, off Prince Olav Coast and Enderby Land, Antarctica, between about 30°E and 50°E. It has an area of 699,000 km²....

 to the east, or between the 14°E and 30°E. Its northern border is defined to be the 65th parallel

Circle of latitude

A circle of latitude, on the Earth, is an imaginary east-west circle connecting all locations that share a given latitude...

 South. Depths exceed 3,000 meters in most of the sea. It is covered with drifting ice almost year-round. It stretches over an area of 1,138,000 km².
. There are many iceberg

Iceberg

An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...

s.

To the south of Riiser-Larsen Sea lie Princess Astrid Coast

Princess Astrid Coast

Princess Astrid Coast is that portion of the coast of Queen Maud Land lying between 5° and 20° E. The entire coast is bordered by ice shelves. Discovered by Capt. H. Halvorsen of the Sevilla in March 1931 and named for Princess Astrid of Norway....

 and Princess Ragnhild Coast

Princess Ragnhild Coast

Princess Ragnhild Coast is the portion of the coast of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica lying between 20° E and the Riiser-Larsen Peninsula, at 34° E. All but the eastern end of the coast is fringed by ice shelves. It was discovered by Capt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and Capt. Nils Larsen in aerial...

 of Queen Maud Land

Queen Maud Land

Queen Maud Land is a c. 2.7 million-square-kilometre region of Antarctica claimed as a dependent territory by Norway. The territory lies between 20° west and 45° east, between the British Antarctic Territory to the west and the Australian Antarctic Territory to the east. The latitudinal...

. In the western part is the Lazarev Ice Shelf

Lazarev Ice Shelf

Lazarev Ice Shelf is that part of the ice shelf fringing Princess Astrid Coast of Queen Maud Land between Leningradskiy Island and Verblyud Island. It is part of western Riiser-Larsen Sea and is about 50 nautical miles long. First photographed from the air and mapped by the German Antarctic...

, and further east are Erskine Iceport

Erskine Iceport

Erskine Iceport , also known as Erskine Bay or General Erskine Bay, is an iceport about 3 nautical miles wide and 6 nautical miles long, which marks a more-or-less permanent indentation extending southeast into the seaward front of the extensive ice shelf fringing Queen Maud Land.-Discovery and...

 and Godel Iceport

Godel Iceport

Godel Iceport also known as Godel Bay, is an iceport about 5 nautical miles wide, which marks a more-or-less permanent indentation in the seaward front of the extensive ice shelf fringing the coast of Queen Maud Land.-Discovery and naming:...

, and the former Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 Roi-Baudouin Station.

The Riiser-Larsen Sea is named after Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 aviation pioneer

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 and polar explorer Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen

Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen

Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was a Norwegian aviation pioneer, polar explorer and businessman. Among his achievements, he is generally regarded as the founder of the Royal Norwegian Air Force....

(1890–1965).