Arctic Ocean (2001) | Akrotiri (2004) | |
Area | total:
14.056 million sq km 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 |
total: 123 sq km
note: includes a salt lake and wetlands |
Area - comparative | slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US | about 0.7 times the size of Washington, DC |
Background | The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently delimited Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US and Canada) and Northern Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two important seasonal waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes circumscribes the Arctic Ocean. | By terms of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment that created the independent Republic of Cyprus, the UK retained full sovreignty and jurisdiction over two areas of almost 254 square kilometers in total: Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The southernmost and smallest of these is the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area, which is also referred to as the Western Sovereign Base Area. |
Capital | - | Episkopi; also serves as capital of Dhekelia |
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 | temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool winters |
Coastline | 45,389 km | - |
Country name | - | conventional long form: Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area
conventional short form: Akrotiri |
Dependency status | - | overseas territory of UK; administered by an administrator who is also the Commander, British Forces Cyprus |
Diplomatic representation from the US | - | none (overseas territory of the UK) |
Diplomatic representation in the US | - | none (overseas territory of the UK) |
Disputes - international | some maritime disputes (see littoral states) | - |
Economy - overview | Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals. | Economic activity is limited to providing services to the military and their families located in Akrotiri. All food and manufactured goods must be imported. |
Elevation extremes | lowest point:
Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m |
- |
Environment - current issues | endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack | shooting around the salt lake; note - breeding place for loggerhead and green turtles; only remaining colony of griffon vultures is on the base |
Executive branch | - | chief of state: Queen Elizabeth II (since 6 February 1952)
head of government: Administrator Maj. Gen. Peter Tomas Clayton PEARSON (since 9 May 2003) note - reports to the British Ministry of Defence elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the administrator is appointed by the monarch |
Flag description | - | the flag of the UK is used |
Geographic coordinates | 90 00 N, 0 00 E | 34 37 N, 32 58 E |
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 | British extraterritorial rights also extended to several small off-post sites scattered across Cyprus |
Legal system | - | the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply |
Location | body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle | peninsula on the southwest coast of Cyprus |
Map references | Arctic Region | Middle East |
Military - note | - | Akrotiri has a full RAF base, Headquarters for British Forces on Cyprus, and Episkopi Support Unit |
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 ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May | - |
Natural resources | sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales) | - |
Population | - | no indigenous inhabitants
note: approximately 1,300 military personnel are on the base; note - there are another 5,000 British citizens who are families of military personnel or civilian staff on both Akrotiri and Dhekelia; Cyprus citizens work on the base, but do not live there |
Ports and harbors | Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US) | - |
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 landmasses; 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 Lomonosov Ridge) | - |