@Arctic Ocean
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Map
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Location: 90 00 N, 0 00 E -- body of water mostly north of the
Arctic Circle

Geography
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Location: body of water mostly north of the Arctic Circle

Geographic coordinates: 90 00 N, 0 00 E

Map references: Arctic Region

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 icepack 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)
lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
highest point: sea level 0 m

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