Arctic Ocean Important Facts and Features for Competitive Exams

The Arctic Ocean is the world’s smallest ocean with a total area of 15,100,00 sq. km.

Three continent, Asia, North America and Europe, reach into the Arctic Circle at their northernmost limits, almost entirely encircling the Arctic Ocean. 

Despite the region’s extra-ordinarily harsh climate. It has been inhabited for thousands of years by peoples such as the European Lapps, the Russian Nenet and the North America lnuit, who draw a living from fishing, herding and hunting. 

More recently, particularly in the Russian Arctic, opportunities to exploit oil and other mineral reserves have encouraged immigration.

Wind-blown snow etches deep pattern in the ice sheet known as ‘Sastrugi’. They align with the direction of the wind.

Large quantities of Coal, Mineral Oil and Natural Gas are to be found in the basins of the Arctic Ocean and in Northern Canada, Alaska and Russian Federation. 

The unfrozen waters have stocks of fish including cod, plaice and haddock.

Reindeers are herded in large number by many of native Arctic people. 

Polar bears range for great distance over the Arctic pack ice in search of food. 

At latitude of more than 75 N, the Arctic Ocean is almost permanently covered by pack-ice, through high winds and the movements of the seas may cause the ice to crack and break up. 

In the more southerly reaches of the Arctic Ocean, like-Siberia, much of the land is covered by permafrost. In the summer, higher temperatures warm the frozen ground, causing a number of typical phenomena. 

The Arctic Ocean comprises two large ocean basins divided by three submarine ridges, the greatest of which, the Lomonosov Ridge, is a huge underwater mountain range which has an average height of more than 3000m.