Arctic Ocean

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 The Arctic Ocean is located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region. 

The Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2. The coastline is 45,390 km long.  

It is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans.

It is surrounded by Eurasia, North America, Greenland and by several islands.

The International Hydrographic Organization consider it as an ocean although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea.


It is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. The Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year
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It includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, Hudson Strait, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and other bodies of water. 

It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea and Labrador Sea.

The Arctic Ocean has a major choke point in the southern Chukchi Sea.

The Arctic ice is thinning. Reduction of the area of Arctic sea ice is resulting in global warming in a positive mechanism. Arctic may become ice free for the first time by 2040.