cean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. The new ocean
extends from the coast of Antarctica north to 60 degrees south
latitude which coincides with the Antarctic Treaty Limit. The Arctic
Ocean remains the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the
Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Southern Ocean).

@Arctic Ocean:Geography

Location: body of water mostly north of the Arctic Circle

Geographic coordinates: 90 00 N, 0 00 E

Map references: Arctic Region

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

Area - comparative: slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

Coastline: 45,389 km

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

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)

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources: sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits,
polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals
and whales)

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

Environment - current issues: endangered marine species include
walruses and whales; fragile ecos