CHAPTER 1 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS vital zone between North America's and Russia's northernmost frontiers consists of the Arctic regions Once only explorers traders and Inuit or Eskimo hunters were interested in the vast icy area at the top of the world Today because of its strategic location and its value to scientists the Arctic is the scene of much activity Year round scientific research stations are maintained to study weather cli mate and mineral resources of the Arctic In addition the Arctic is studded with air bases constant reminders that the shortest air routes between the United States and Russia are over the area Only a narrow channel sep arates Little Diomede Island of the United States from Big Diomede Island Ostrov Ratmanova which is Russian territory With the technological advances in icebreaker ships and nuclear powered submarines the distances between the two countries seem even shorter IO
GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS RUSSIA sea of Okhotsk Nordvik Ungolinaya FINLAND Barents Sea SIberian is Josef NORWA ARCTIC Svalbard Wrangel L NORTH POLE Greenland Bering sea Sea OCEAN GREENLAND The DENMARK IU S Dayani PACIFIC OCEAN Actoria Yellowknife ATLANTIC ampton Arctic Regions o CE AN Churchill Hudson Bay 200 400 600 800 1000 mi CANADA CANADA O400 800 1200 100 km A coauPTION MA The average location of the 50 °F 10 °C July isotherm in the Northern Hemisphere the climatological limit of the Arctic An isotherm is a line drawn on a map or chart joining points with the same temperature The Arctic is sometimes defined as the area that lies within the Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is a parallel of latitude 66° 30 N latitude 1 650 miles 2 660 kilometers II
INVESTIGATING EARTH's PoLAR BioMES from North Pole the end of the northern the Earth's axis Actually the Arctic Circle does not enclose all the Arctic regions The true Arctic is the area in which the mean tem perature for the warmest month is less than 50°F 10 °C The coldest region the polar segment is where the mean temperature of the warmest month is below freezing The subarctic region is the area that has as a mean temperature above 50 °F 1o °C for more than three but less than four months a year The boundary of the Arctic is some times said to be the line beyond which no trees grow This is based on the theory that tree life cannot exist unless there is at least one month a year with a temperature of 50 °F 10 °C ARCTIC OCEAN AND ARCTIC LAND The greater part of the 8 million square miles 21 million square kilometers within the Arctic Circle is occupied by the Arctic Ocean 5 440 000 square miles or 14 090 000 square kilometers Around the pole the ocean is about 13 800 feet deep 4 200 meters Islands dot the southern two thirds I2
GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS ID Colorful houses and landscape in Greenland iStockphoto Thinkstock of the ocean Below these comes a rim of land provided by the northern continents The most important islands north of America are Baffin Victoria and Ellesmere belonging to Canada Svalbard a Norwegian group and Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya belonging to Russia are the largest islands north of Europe North of Asia near Siberia lie Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands Other 13
