ARCTIC OCEAN
GEOGRAPHY
Total area: 14,056,000 km2; includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea,
Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay,
Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and other tributary water bodies
Comparative area: slightly more than 1.5 times the size of the US;
smallest of the world's four oceans (after Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean,
and Indian Ocean)
Coastline: 45,389 km
Climate: 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 which 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 (USSR) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and
Iceland); the ice pack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but
more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling
land masses; 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
Lomonsov Ridge); maximum depth is 4,665 meters in the Fram Basin
Natural resources: sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits,
polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals,
whales)
Environment: endangered marine species include walruses and whales;
ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island;
icebergs calved from western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada;
maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the
frozen ocean and lasts about 10 months; permafrost in islands; virtually
icelocked from October to June; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow
to recover from disruptions or damage
Note: major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern
access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); ships subject to
superstructure icing from October to May; strategic location between
North America and the USSR; shortest marine link between the extremes of
eastern and western USSR; floating research stations operated by the US
and USSR
ECONOMY
Overview: Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of
natural resources, including crude oil, natural gas, fishing, and
sealing.
COMMUNICATIONS
Ports: Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (USSR), Prudhoe Bay (US)
Telecommunications: no submarine cables
Note: sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the
Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Asia) are
important waterways
