Statistical information Arctic Ocean 1993

Arctic Ocean in the World

Arctic Ocean - Introduction 1993

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Background: The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's fou oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean).

Arctic Ocean - Geography 1993

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Location: body of water mostly north of the Arctic Circle

Geographic coordinates

Map reference: Arctic Region, Asia, North America, Standard Time Zones of the World

Area
Total: total: 14.056 million km²

Land boundaries

Coastline: 45,389 km

Maritime claims

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 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

Elevation

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

Land use

Land use

Irrigated land

Major rivers

Major watersheds area km²

Total water withdrawal

Total renewable water resources

Natural hazards

Geography

Arctic Ocean - People 1993

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Population

Nationality

Ethnic groups

Languages

Religions

Demographic profile

Age structure

Age structure

Dependency ratios

Median age

Population growth rate

Birth rate

Death rate

Net migration rate

Population distribution

Urbanization

Major urban areas

Environment
Current issues: 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
Current issues 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