Arctic Ocean (2001) | Tromelin Island (2002) | |
Airports | - | 1 (2001) |
Airports - with unpaved runways | - | total: 1
under 914 m: 1 (2002) |
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: 1 sq km
land: 1 sq km water: 0 sq km |
Area - comparative | slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US | about 1.7 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. | First explored by the French in 1776, the island came under the jurisdiction of Reunion in 1814. At present, it serves as a sea turtle sanctuary and is the site of an important meteorological station. |
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 | 3.7 km |
Country name | - | conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Tromelin Island local long form: none local short form: Ile Tromelin |
Dependency status | - | possession of France; administered by a high commissioner of the Republic, resident in Reunion |
Disputes - international | some maritime disputes (see littoral states) | claimed by Madagascar and Mauritius |
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 7 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 | 15 52 S, 54 25 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 | climatologically important location for forecasting cyclones; wildlife sanctuary (seabirds, tortoises) |
Irrigated land | - | 0 sq km (1998 est.) |
Land boundaries | - | 0 km |
Land use | - | arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (grasses; scattered bushes) (1998 est.) |
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, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar |
Map references | Arctic Region | Africa |
Maritime claims | - | continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 12 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 | NA |
Natural resources | sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales) | fish |
Population | - | uninhabited, except for visits by scientists (July 2002 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, flat, and sandy; likely volcanic |
Waterways | - | none |