Compare Arctic Ocean (2001) - Glorioso Islands (2005)

Compare Arctic Ocean (2001) z Glorioso Islands (2005)

	Arctic Ocean (2001)	Glorioso Islands (2005)

Airports	-	1 (2004 est.)
Airports - with unpaved runways	-	total: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2004 est.)
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: 5 sq km land: 5 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes Ile Glorieuse, Ile du Lys, Verte Rocks, Wreck Rock, and South Rock
Area - comparative	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US	about eight times the size of The Mall in 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.	A French possession since 1892, the Glorioso Islands are composed of two lushly vegetated coral islands (Ile Glorieuse and Ile du Lys) and three rock islets. A military garrison operates a weather and radio station on Ile Glorieuse.
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	35.2 km
Country name	-	conventional long form: none conventional short form: Glorioso Islands local long form: none local short form: Iles Glorieuses
Dependency status	-	possession of France; administered by the Administrateur Superieur of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Diplomatic representation from the US	-	none (possession of France)
Diplomatic representation in the US	-	none (possession of France)
Disputes - international	some maritime disputes (see littoral states)	claimed by Madagascar
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: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: unnamed location 12 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	NA
Flag description	-	the flag of France is used
Geographic coordinates	90 00 N, 0 00 E	11 30 S, 47 20 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	the islands and rocks are surrounded by an extensive reef system
Irrigated land	-	0 sq km (1998 est.)
Land boundaries	-	0 km
Land use	-	arable land: 0% permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (all lush vegetation and coconut palms) (2001)
Legal system	-	the laws of France, where applicable, apply
Location	body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle	Southern Africa, group of islands in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Madagascar
Map references	Arctic Region	Africa
Maritime claims	-	territorial sea: 12 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Military - note	-	defense is the responsibility of France
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	periodic cyclones
Natural resources	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)	guano, coconuts
Population	-	no indigenous inhabitants note: there is a small French military garrison along with a few meteorologists; visited by scientists (July 2005 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)	low and flat

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