The Drake Passage connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Oceans south of Tierra del Fuego. To the south, the South Shetland Islands mark the boundary, the point at which the Southern Ocean is funneled to a channel around 900 km wide.

The Drake Passage and the sailing route rounding Cape Horn played an important part in 19th and early 20th century trading voyages, before the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Stormy seas and icy conditions made rounding of Cape Horn through the Drake Passage a rigorous test for ships and crews alike. Though it bears the name of 16th-century English explorer, Sir Francis Drake, the Drake Passage was first traversed in 1616 by a Flemish expedition led by Willem Schouten. Drake did not sail through the passage but passed instead through the Straits of Magellan to the north of Tierra del Fuego, although a storm in the Pacific blew his vessel south into the latitudes of the passage.

Winds are predominantly from the west and often most intense in the northern part. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 5°C in the north to -3°C in the south. Cyclones (atmospheric low-pressure systems with winds that blow clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere) formed in the Pacific Ocean traverse the passage towards the southern end. Water in the passage flows from the Pacific into the Atlantic, driven by the winds. The general movement, known as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is the most voluminous in the world with an estimated rate of flow between 950 to 1500 million cubic meters per second.

Surface water temperature varies from near 6°C in the north to -1°C in the south, with the temperature altering sharply in a zone near 60°S, known as the Antarctic Convergence, or Polar Front. Average depth of the Drake is around 3,400 m (11,000 feet), with deeper regions of up to 4,800 m (15,600 feet) near the northern and southern boundaries.