Note: major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern
access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); ships subject to
superstructure icing from October to May; strategic location between
North America and the USSR; shortest marine link between the extremes of
eastern and western USSR; floating research stations operated by the US
and USSR

_*_Economy
_#_Overview: Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of
natural resources, including crude oil, natural gas, fishing, and
sealing.

_*_Communications
_#_Ports: Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (USSR), Prudhoe Bay (US)

_#_Telecommunications: no submarine cables

_#_Note: sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the
Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Asia) are
important waterways
_%_
_@_Argentina
_*_Geography
_#_Total area: 2,766,890 km2; land area: 2,736,690 km2

_#_Comparative area: slightly more than four times the size of Texas

_#_Land boundaries: 9,665 km total; Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km,
Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km

_#_Coastline: 4,989 km

_#_Maritime claims:

Continental shelf: 200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitation;

Territorial sea: 200 nm (overflight and navigation permitted beyond
12 nm)

_#_Disputes: short section of the boundary with Uruguay is in dispute;
short section of the boundary with Chile is indefinite; claims
British-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas); claims
British-administered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands;
territorial claim in Antarctica

_#_Climate: mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in
southwest

_#_Terrain: rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to
rolling plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western border

_#_Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc,
tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, crude oil, uranium

_#_Land use: arable land 9%; permanent crops 4%; meadows and
pastures 52%; forest and woodland 22%; other 13%; includes irrigated
1%

_#_Environment: Tucuman and Mendoza areas in Andes subject to
earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike Pampas and
northeast; irrigated soil degradation; desertification; air and water
pollution in Buenos Aires

_#_Note: second-largest country in South America (after Brazil);
strategic location relative to sea lanes between South Atlantic and
South Pacific Oceans (Strait o