The Arctic Ocean is located in the Arctic, in its central part. The land surrounds it from almost all sides. This mainly determines the features of its natural conditions: climate, hydrological factors. The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of all the oceans on the planet.
The boundaries of the water area lie from the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Faroe and Shetland Islands, along the Bering, Davis and Danish Strait. Through these straits, the Arctic Ocean communicates with the Pacific and Atlantic.
The coastline is quite rugged. Seas of the Arctic Ocean occupy half of the entire water area. There are nine of them. The largest is Norwegian, and the smallest is the White Sea. There are a lot of island archipelagos and independent single islands in the water area.
About half of the entire bottom area is occupied by the shelf. Off the coast of Eurasia, the shelf strip is particularly wide and extends over many hundreds of kilometers. In the ocean bed there are several basins that are separated by underwater ridges. The main component of the bottom topography is the Haeckel Range, which continues the Mid-Atlantic Range. The uplift of Mendeleev, Lomonosov, Chukotka is also distinguished.
The Arctic Ocean is rich in alluvial deposits of heavy metals (tin and others). Bottom sediments in the shelf zone are formed by river sediments. More than fifty fields of gas and oil were found here, some of which are beginning to be developed.
The polar position of the Arctic Ocean affects its climate. Over the water area, air arctic masses form and prevail throughout the year. In winter, the average air temperature drops to forty degrees, in the summer the indicator is close to zero. During the polar day, due to the ability of the ice to reflect most of the radiation of the sun, the climate becomes harsher. The amount of precipitation that falls over the ocean during the year ranges from one hundred to two hundred millimeters.
The Arctic Ocean includes a fairly powerful stream of warm water. Moving east and north, the denser and salty waters of the warm current plunge under not so salty, but cold waters. This stream is part of the North Atlantic Current. Transarctic current carries ice and polar waters into the Atlantic through the Danish Strait . This movement is directed from east to west, from the East Siberian and Chukchi Sea.
The existing hydrological regime and life in the ocean is maintained due to heat and water exchange with nearby oceans. In the water masses, a constant supply of heat is maintained due to the influx of Atlantic waters. Increases temperature and reduces salinity significant river flow from the territory of North America and Eurasia. For a significant part of the year, the temperature of surface waters is low and approaches the freezing temperature (with the existing salinity), amounting to minus one or two degrees. In summer, the temperature rises to five to eight degrees above zero only in subarctic latitudes.
Ice exists here all year round. This is a characteristic feature of oceanic nature. The most common pack is perennial ice, the thickness of which is from two to four meters or more. More ice forms during the winter than melts during the summer; surpluses are carried to the Atlantic Ocean.
The basis of the biological mass of the water area consists of cold-hardy diatoms. They are common both on the ice and in the water itself. Phyto- and zooplankton are common in the Atlantic part, there are bottom algae. Commercial species of fish (halibut, navaga, cod and others) live in the ocean and seas. Among mammals, walruses, polar bears, seals, and beluga whales are common.