Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean as the 1991 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 12 fields, one of 36 editions from 1990 to 2025.
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Geography
8 fieldsClimate
- 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 which 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 (USSR) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland);
- the ice pack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling land masses;
- 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 Lomonsov Ridge);
- maximum depth is 4,665 meters in the Fram Basin
Natural resources
sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals, whales)
Environment
- endangered marine species include walruses and whales;
- ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island;
- icebergs calved from western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada;
- maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean and lasts about 10 months;
- permafrost in islands;
- virtually icelocked from October to June;
- fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage
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
Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including crude oil, natural gas, fishing, and sealing.
1 fieldOverview
Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including crude oil, natural gas, fishing, and sealing.
Communications
3 fieldsNote
sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Asia) are important waterways
Cite this entry
Central Intelligence Agency. “Arctic Ocean.” The World Factbook 1991. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/arctic-ocean/1991.