In 1845, geographers named the giant body of water sandwiched between North America and Eurasia, the Arctic Ocean. Before that, for more than two centuries, it was called the Hyperborean Ocean. Translated, this means "in the extreme north."
1. Geographical location
The Arctic Ocean is unique. It is located in the "heart" of the Arctic and is framed by land on almost all sides. The border in the south extends almost everywhere within the Arctic Circle. From the northwest and west, it “meets” the Atlantic Ocean through the Davis and Hudson Straits, and “divorces” thanks to the islands of Greenland and Baffin's Land. This geographical position determines the features of its climate, fauna and flora, bottom topography.
2. Territorial disputes
The Arctic Ocean washes the shores of six states: Denmark, Canada, Norway, Russia, the United States and Iceland. Of all the countries, only the latter does not lay claim to its Arctic sector.
3. Dimensions
The Arctic Ocean has the smallest size. Its area is 14, 7 million square meters. km (this is less than 3% of the World Ocean), and the volume of water - 18, 07 million cubic meters. km. It is also the shallowest, with an average depth of only 1225 m. Almost half of the bottom area is occupied by the shelf and underwater margins of the land, which explains the shallow depth. The length of the coastline is 45.4 thousand km.
4. Climate
The climate of the Arctic Ocean is formed under the influence of polar latitudes. Arctic masses are formed over the water area, which dominate throughout the year. In winter, the average air temperature drops to -40 ° C, in summer it tends to zero. The severity of weather conditions is due to solar radiation, an impressive proportion of which is reflected by ice during the polar day. Over the ocean falls from 100 to 200 mm of precipitation annually.
5. The ocean is getting warmer
In 2010, a group of sea researchers discovered planktonic organisms in the Arctic Ocean, typical of tropical latitudes with a hot climate. Not far from the Svalbard archipelago, scientists took water samples, from which 145 units of plankton were isolated. These organisms have never been found in cold waters before. According to experts, their presence in the Arctic Ocean speaks of its global warming.
6. Salinity
The Arctic Ocean is also the most unsalted. The reason for this lies in the large amount of ice. Due to its seasonal thawing, the salinity level of the waters varies greatly at different times of the year. Fresh rivers of Eurasia and North America also flow into the Arctic Ocean.
7. Deep waters
Closer to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, the waters are almost motionless. Their complete renewal takes place over 7 centuries.
8. Minerals
The Arctic Ocean is abundant in mineral resources, mainly gas, oil and coal. Researchers believe that the undiscovered reserves of the Arctic shelf account for 13% of the world's oil and 30% of gas. Half of them are accumulated off the coast of Alaska, in the Greenland region.
