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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Arctic: Geography
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
The World Factbook 1992: Arctic Ocean
Geography
</hdr>
<body>
<p>Total area: 14,056,000 km2
</p>
<p>Land 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
</p>
<p>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)
</p>
<p>Coastline: 45,389 km
</p>
<p>Disputes: some maritime disputes (see littoral states)
</p>
<p>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
</p>
<p>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 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
</p>
<p>Natural resources: sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits,
polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals
(seals, whales)
</p>
<p>Environment: endangered marine species include walruses and
whales; ice islands occasionally break away from northern
Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in 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
</p>
<p>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 Russia; shortest marine link
between the extremes of eastern and western Russia, floating
research stations operated by the US and Russia
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>