g 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; ships subject to superstructure icing
from October to May
international agreements: NA

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 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:Transportation

Ports: Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)

Note: sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the
Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are
important seasonal waterways

@Arctic Ocean:Communications

Telephone system:
international: no submarine cables

________________________________________________________________________

ARGENTINA

@Argentina:Geography

Location: Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean,
between Chile and Uruguay

Map references: South America

Area:
total area: 2,766,890 sq km
land area: 2,736,690 sq km
comparative area: slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US

Land boundaries: total 9,665 km, Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km,
Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km

Coast