Compare Arctic Ocean (2004) - Bouvet Island (2004)

Compare Arctic Ocean (2004) z Bouvet Island (2004)

	Arctic Ocean (2004)	Bouvet Island (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: 58.5 sq km land: 58.5 sq km water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US	about 0.3 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.	This uninhabited volcanic island is almost entirely covered by glaciers and is difficult to approach. It was discovered in 1739 by a French naval officer after whom the island was named. No claim was made until 1825, when the British flag was raised. In 1928, the UK waived its claim in favor of Norway, which had occupied the island the previous year. In 1971, Bouvet Island and the adjacent territorial waters were designated a nature reserve. Since 1977, Norway has run an automated meteorological station on the island.
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	antarctic
Coastline	45,389 km	29.6 km
Country name	-	conventional long form: none conventional short form: Bouvet Island
Dependency status	-	territory of Norway; administered by the Polar Department of the Ministry of Justice and Police from Oslo
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; declared a nature reserve
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m	lowest point: South Atlantic Ocean 0 m highest point: Olav Peak 935 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	54 26 S, 3 24 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	covered by glacial ice; declared a nature reserve
Irrigated land	-	0 sq km (1998 est.)
Land boundaries	-	0 km
Land use	-	arable land: 0% permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (93% ice) (2001)
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	island in the South Atlantic Ocean, southwest of the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa)
Map references	Arctic Region	Antarctic Region
Maritime claims	-	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	NA
Natural resources	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)	none
Population	-	uninhabited (July 2004 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)	volcanic; coast is mostly inaccessible
Transportation - note	sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways	-

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