Compare Arctic Ocean (2001) - Coral Sea Islands (2003)

Compare Arctic Ocean (2001) z Coral Sea Islands (2003)

	Arctic Ocean (2001)	Coral Sea Islands (2003)

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: less than 3 sq km land: less than 3 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes numerous small islands and reefs scattered over a sea area of about 780,000 sq km, with the Willis Islets the most important
Area - comparative	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US	NA
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.	Scattered over some 1 million square kilometers of ocean, the Coral Sea Islands were declared a territory of Australia in 1969. They are uninhabited except for a small meteorological staff on the Willis Islets. Automated weather stations, beacons, and a lighthouse occupy many other islands and reefs.
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	tropical
Coastline	45,389 km	3,095 km
Country name	-	conventional long form: Coral Sea Islands Territory conventional short form: Coral Sea Islands
Dependency status	-	territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Department of the Environment, Sport, and Territories
Diplomatic representation from the US	-	none (territory of Australia)
Diplomatic representation in the US	-	none (territory of Australia)
Disputes - international	some maritime disputes (see littoral states)	none
Economy - overview	Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.	no economic activity
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m	lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: unnamed location on Cato Island 6 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	no permanent fresh water resources
Executive branch	-	administered from Canberra by the Department of the Environment, Sport, and Territories
Flag description	-	the flag of Australia is used
Geographic coordinates	90 00 N, 0 00 E	18 00 S, 152 00 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	important nesting area for birds and turtles
Irrigated land	-	0 sq km (1998 est.)
Land boundaries	-	0 km
Land use	-	arable land: 0% permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (mostly grass or scrub cover) (1998 est.)
Legal system	-	the laws of Australia, where applicable, apply
Location	body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle	Oceania, islands in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia
Map references	Arctic Region	Oceania
Maritime claims	-	exclusive fishing zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 3 NM
Military - note	-	defense is the responsibility of Australia; visited regularly by the Royal Australian Navy; Australia has control over the activities of visitors
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	occasional tropical cyclones
Natural resources	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)	NEGL
Population	-	no indigenous inhabitants note: there is a staff of three to four at the meteorological station (July 2003 est.)
Ports and harbors	Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)	none; offshore anchorage only
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)	sand and coral reefs and islands (or cays)
Waterways	-	none

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