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Home Reference
Maps Appendixes
| Background: |
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the
Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently delimited
Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US and Canada) and Northern
Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two important seasonal waterways.
A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes circumscribes
the Arctic Ocean. |
| Location: |
body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north
of the Arctic Circle |
| Geographic
coordinates: |
90 00 N, 0 00 E |
| Map
references: |
Arctic
Region |
| Area: |
total:
14.056 million sq km
note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents
Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson
Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other
tributary water bodies |
| Area
- comparative: |
slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US |
| Coastline: |
45,389 km |
| Climate: |
polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow
annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness,
cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized
by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with
rain or snow |
| Terrain: |
central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that averages
about 3 meters in thickness, although pressure ridges may be three times
that size; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but
nearly straight-line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Russia)
to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded
by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during
the winter and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor
is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with
the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges
(Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge) |
| Elevation
extremes: |
lowest
point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
highest point: sea level
0 m |
| Natural
resources: |
sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil
and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales) |
| Natural
hazards: |
ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island;
icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern
Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually ice locked from October to
June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May |
| Environment
- current issues: |
endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem
slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning
polar icepack |
| Geography
- note: |
major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the
Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North
America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern
and western Russia; floating research stations operated by the US and
Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters
over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months
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| Economy
- overview: |
Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources,
including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.
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