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Arctic
Ocean
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Background:
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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:
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body of
water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic
Circle |
Geographic coordinates:
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90 00 N, 0
00 E |
Map references:
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Arctic
Region |
Area:
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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
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Area - comparative:
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slightly
less than 1.5 times the size of the US |
Coastline:
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45,389 km
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Climate:
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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:
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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:
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lowest
point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
highest point: sea level 0 m |
Natural resources:
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sand and
gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas
fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales) |
Natural hazards:
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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:
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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:
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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 centimetres over the frozen
ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months |
Economy - overview:
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Economic
activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including
petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals. |
Ports and harbors:
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Churchill
(Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US) |
Transportation - note:
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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
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some maritime disputes (see littoral states) |
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