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Guide
Introduction
| |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Economy
- overview: |
Economic activity is limited
to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural
gas, fish, and seals. |
| Ports
and harbors: |
Churchill (Canada), Murmansk
(Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US) |
| Transportation
- note: |
sparse network of air, ocean,
river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and
Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways |
| Disputes
- international: |
some maritime disputes (see
littoral states) |
|
