Compare Ashmore and Cartier Islands (2001) - Arctic Ocean (2003)

Compare Ashmore and Cartier Islands (2001) z Arctic Ocean (2003)

	Ashmore and Cartier Islands (2001)	Arctic Ocean (2003)

Area	total: 5 sq km land: 5 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and East Islets) and Cartier Island	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
Area - comparative	about eight times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US
Background	These uninhabited islands came under Australian authority in 1931; formal administration began two years later. Ashmore Reef supports a rich and diverse avian and marine habitat; in 1983 it became a National Nature Reserve. Recent geological explorations have indicated promising petroleum formations.	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.
Climate	tropical	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
Coastline	74.1 km	45,389 km
Country name	conventional long form: Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands conventional short form: Ashmore and Cartier Islands	-
Dependency status	territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Australian 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	none	some maritime disputes (see littoral states)
Economy - overview	no economic activity	Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: unnamed location 3 m	lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m
Environment - current issues	NA	endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack
Flag description	the flag of Australia is used	-
Geographic coordinates	12 14 S, 123 05 E	90 00 N, 0 00 E
Geography - note	Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve established in August 1983	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
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% (all grass and sand)	-
Legal system	the laws of the Northern Territory of Australia, where applicable, apply	-
Location	Southeastern Asia, islands in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Australia	body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle
Map references	Southeast Asia	Arctic Region
Maritime claims	contiguous zone: 12 NM continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation exclusive fishing zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 3 NM	-
Military - note	defense is the responsibility of Australia; periodic visits by the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force	-
Natural hazards	surrounded by shoals and reefs that can pose maritime 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
Natural resources	fish	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
Population	no indigenous inhabitants note: there are only seasonal caretakers (July 2001 est.)	-
Ports and harbors	none; offshore anchorage only	Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)
Terrain	low with sand and coral	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)
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
Waterways	none	-

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