The Arctic: An Ocean Surrounded by Land

In the north, permanent sea-ice formation could not occur until the Arctic Ocean was land locked. This occurred when the positions of the continents prevented circulation of warmer southern waters from flowing into the Arctic Basin. The North Pole, situated in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, is surrounded by the landmasses of Asia, America and Europe that allow little mixing of warm water currents from the south. The result is an ice-covered Arctic Ocean. The Arctic sea-ice cover began forming approximately permanent ice appearing in central Europe and Asia, as well as on the mountains of North America, Iceland and Greenland. In terms of recent geologic history, there have been several major glacial episodes in the Northern Hemisphere, with the most recent one beginning about 80,000 years ago and ending 10,000 years ago. The ice sheet that resulted fluctuated (advanced and retreated) several times during that period. During the interval of greatest ice formation, most of the northern United States, and all of Canada and Greenland were covered in ice up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) thick. In Eurasia ice covered most of Europe and areas eastward to the Bering Strait. Today, the Antarctic Ice Sheet accounts for 90% of the world's permanent ice, the Greenland Ice Sheet for about 9% and alpine glaciers the rest.

From Quark Expeditions Arctic Reader presented to travelers on all of our Arctic expeditions.