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Terytorium | total: 14.056 million sq km
note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Grenlandia Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies |
Terytorium - porownanie wielkosci | slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US |
Tlo historyczne | The Ocean Arktyczny is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Ocean Spokojny, Ocean Atlantycki, Ocean Indyjski, and the recently delimited Ocean Poludniowy). The Northwest Passage (US and Kanada) and Northern Sea Route (Norwegia and Rosja) are two important seasonal waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes circumscribes the Ocean Arktyczny. |
Klimat | 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 z rain or snow |
Linia brzegowa | 45,389 km |
Miedzynarodowe dyskusje | some maritime disputes (see littoral states) |
Ekonomia | Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals. |
Skrajne punkty wysokosci | lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
highest point: sea level 0 m |
Srodowisko - obecne problemy | endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack |
Koordynaty geograficzne | 90 00 N, 0 00 E |
Polozenie geograficzne | major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the Ocean Spokojny via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North America and Rosja; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Rosja; floating research stations operated by the US and Rosja; maximum snow cover w marzec or kwiecien about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months |
Lokalizacja | body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle |
Lokalizacja na mapie | Arctic Region |
Naturalne zagrozenia | ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers w western Grenlandia and extreme northeastern Kanada; permafrost w islands; virtually ice locked from pazdziernik to czerwiec; ships subject to superstructure icing from pazdziernik to maj |
Surowce naturalne | sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales) |
Porty i stocznie | Churchill (Kanada), Murmansk (Rosja), Prudhoe Bay (US) |
Uksztaltowanie terenu | central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that averages about 3 meters w thickness, although pressure ridges may be three times that size; clockwise drift pattern w the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Rosja) to Dania Strait (between Grenlandia and Islandia); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles w size during the winter and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) z the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge) |
Transport - uwagi | sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways |