arctic ocean

Arctic Ocean
    n 1: ice covered waters surrounding the North Pole; mostly
         covered with solid ice or with ice floes and icebergs
    

Arctic Ocean

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.

Geography

     Location:  body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America,
                mostly north of the Arctic Circle

    Geographic  90 00 N, 0 00 E
  coordinates:

           Map  Arctic Region
   references:

         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 -  slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US
  comparative:

    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, on average, is about 3 meters thick,
                although pressure ridges may be three times that
                thickness; 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  lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
     extremes:  highest point: sea level 0 m

       Natural  sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits,
    resources:  polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine
                mammals (seals and whales)

       Natural  ice islands occasionally break away from northern
      hazards:  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 -  endangered marine species include walruses and whales;
       current  fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover
       issues:  from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack

   Geography -  major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern
         note:  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

     Economy -  Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of
     overview:  natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas,
                fish, and seals.


Transportation

     Ports and  Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)
    terminals:

Transportation  sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes;
       - note:  the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea
                Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways


Transnational
Issues

    Disputes -  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)
international: