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)

Elevation extremes:
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)

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; ships subject to superstructure icing
from October to May

Environment-current issues: endangered marine species include walruses
and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from
disruptions or damage

Environment-international agreements:
party to: none of the selected agreements
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography-note: major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern
access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); 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; snow cover lasts
about 10 months

@Arctic Ocean:Government

Data code: none; the US Government has not approved a standard for
hydrographic codes-see the Cross-Reference List of Hydrographic Data
Codes appendix

@Arctic Ocean:Economy

Economy-overview: Economic activity is limited