Arctic Ocean, Geography

Location:
  body of water mostly north of the Arctic Circle
Map references:
  Arctic Region, Asia, North America, Standard Time Zones of the World
Area:
total area:
  14.056 million sq km
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)
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
Coastline:
  45,389 km
International disputes:
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states); Svalbard is the focus of
  a maritime boundary dispute between Norway and Russia
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
Natural resources:
  sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil
  and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
Environment:
current issues:
  endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile
  ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or
  damage
natural hazards:
  ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island;
  icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme
  northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually icelocked from
  October to June
international agreements:
  NA
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; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50
  centimeters over the frozen ocean and lasts about 10 months

Arctic Ocean, Government

Digraph:
  XQ

Arctic Ocean, Economy

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

Arctic Ocean, Communications

Ports:
  Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), 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 (Eurasia) are important
  seasonal waterways

