Arctic Ocean (2001) | Jan Mayen (2001) | |
Airports | - | 1 (2000 est.) |
Airports - with unpaved runways | - | total:
1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2000 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:
373 sq km land: 373 sq km water: 0 sq km |
Area - comparative | slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US | slightly more than twice 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. | This desolate, mountainous island was named after a Dutch whaling captain who indisputably discovered it in 1614 (earlier claims are inconclusive). Visited only occasionally by seal hunters and trappers over the following centuries, the island came under Norwegian sovereignty in 1929. The long dormant Beerenberg volcano resumed activity in 1970; it is the northernmost active volcano on earth. |
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 | arctic maritime with frequent storms and persistent fog |
Coastline | 45,389 km | 124.1 km |
Country name | - | conventional long form:
none conventional short form: Jan Mayen |
Dependency status | - | territory of Norway; administered from Oslo through a governor (sysselmann) resident in Longyearbyen (Svalbard); however, authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian Defense Communication Service |
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. | Jan Mayen is a volcanic island with no exploitable natural resources. Economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway's radio and meteorological stations located on the island. |
Elevation extremes | lowest point:
Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m |
lowest point:
Norwegian Sea 0 m highest point: Haakon VII Toppen/Beerenberg 2,277 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 Norway is used |
Geographic coordinates | 90 00 N, 0 00 E | 71 00 N, 8 00 W |
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 | barren volcanic island with some moss and grass |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | - | 13 (Jan Mayen and Svalbard) (2000) |
Irrigated land | - | 0 sq km (1993) |
Land boundaries | - | 0 km |
Land use | - | arable land:
0% permanent crops: 0% permanent pastures: 0% forests and woodland: 0% other: 100% |
Legal system | - | the laws of Norway, where applicable, apply |
Location | body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle | Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the Norwegian Sea, northeast of Iceland |
Map references | Arctic Region | Arctic Region |
Maritime claims | - | contiguous zone:
10 NM continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 4 NM |
Military - note | - | defense is the responsibility of Norway |
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 | dominated by the volcano Haakon VII Toppen/Beerenberg; volcanic activity resumed in 1970 |
Natural resources | sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales) | none |
Population | - | no indigenous inhabitants
note: there are personnel who operate the Long Range Navigation (Loran-C) base and the weather and coastal services radio station (July 2001 est.) |
Ports and harbors | Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US) | none; offshore anchorage only |
Radio broadcast stations | - | AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
note: there is one radio and meteorological station (1998) |
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) | volcanic island, partly covered by glaciers |
Waterways | - | none |