page_title: Arctic Ocean
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Arctic Ocean / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Bathymetric map of the w:Arctic Ocean
context_page_description: The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans It is also known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Sea. It is sometimes classified as an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, and it is also seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean.
  Located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere, besides its surrounding waters the Arctic Ocean is surrounded by Eurasia and North America. It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter. The Arctic Ocean's surface temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy fresh water inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%.
context_section_description: The Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km² (5,427,000 sq mi), almost the size of Antarctica. The coastline is 45,390 km (28,200 mi) long. It is the only ocean smaller than Russia, which has a land area of 16,377,742 km² (6,323,482 sq mi). It is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands.
  It is generally taken to include Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, White Sea and other tributary 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.
  Countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are: Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland (territory of the Kingdom of Denmark), Canada and the United States.
caption: A bathymetric/topographic map of the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding lands.
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