Compare Coral Sea Islands (2004) - Arctic Ocean (2001)

Compare Coral Sea Islands (2004) z Arctic Ocean (2001)

	Coral Sea Islands (2004)	Arctic Ocean (2001)

Area	total: less than 3 sq km land: less than 3 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes numerous small islands and reefs scattered over a sea area of about 780,000 sq km, with the Willis Islets the most important	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	NA	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US
Background	Scattered over some 1 million square kilometers of ocean, the Coral Sea Islands were declared a territory of Australia in 1969. They are uninhabited except for a small meteorological staff on the Willis Islets. Automated weather stations, beacons, and a lighthouse occupy many other islands and reefs.	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	3,095 km	45,389 km
Country name	conventional long form: Coral Sea Islands Territory conventional short form: Coral Sea Islands	-
Dependency status	territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the 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: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: unnamed location on Cato Island 6 m	lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m
Environment - current issues	no permanent fresh water resources	endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack
Executive branch	administered from Canberra by the Department of the Environment, Sport, and Territories	-
Flag description	the flag of Australia is used	-
Geographic coordinates	18 00 S, 152 00 E	90 00 N, 0 00 E
Geography - note	important nesting area for birds and turtles	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 (1998 est.)	-
Land boundaries	0 km	-
Land use	arable land: 0% permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (mostly grass or scrub cover) (2001)	-
Legal system	the laws of Australia, where applicable, apply	-
Location	Oceania, islands in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia	body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle
Map references	Oceania	Arctic Region
Maritime claims	territorial sea: 3 nm exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm	-
Military - note	defense is the responsibility of Australia; visited regularly by the Royal Australian Navy; Australia has control over the activities of visitors	-
Natural hazards	occasional tropical cyclones	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	NEGL	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
Population	no indigenous inhabitants note: there is a staff of three to four at the meteorological station (2004 est.)	-
Ports and harbors	none; offshore anchorage only	Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)
Terrain	sand and coral reefs and islands (or cays)	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)

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