Geography Stats: compare key data on Arctic Ocean & United States

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STAT	Arctic Ocean	United States	HISTORY
Area > A note	includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, <a href=/encyclopedia/Bristol-Beaufort><a href=/encyclopedia/Bristol-Beaufort>Beaufort</a></a> Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, <a href=/country/gl><a href=/country/gl>Greenland</a></a> Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary <a href=/kp/water>water</a> bodies	includes only the 50 states and <a href=/encyclopedia/Washington,-DC><a href=/encyclopedia/Washington,-DC>District of Columbia</a></a>
Area > Comparative	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US	about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; more than twice the size of the European Union
Area > Comparative to US places	slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US	about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; more than twice the size of the European Union
Area > Note	includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies	includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia
Area > Total	14.06 million sq km Ranked 6th. 43% more than United States	9.83 million sq km Ranked 4th.
Climate	polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow	mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
Coastline	45,389 km Ranked 7th. 2 times more than United States	19,924 km Ranked 9th.
Elevation extremes > Highest point	sea level 0 m	Mount McKinley (Denali) 6,194 m (highest point in North America)
Geographic coordinates	90 00 N, 0 00 E	38 00 N, 97 00 W
Note	major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Russia; floating research stations operated by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months	world's third-largest country by size (after Russia and Canada) and by population (after China and India); Mt. McKinley is highest point in North America and Death Valley the lowest point on the continent
Location	body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle	North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico
Map references	Arctic Region	North America
Natural hazards	ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May	tsunamis; volcanoes; earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts; tornadoes in the Midwest and Southeast; mud slides in California; forest fires in the west; flooding; permafrost in northern Alaska, a major impediment to development
Natural resources	sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)	coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, rare earth elements, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber
Terrain	central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that, on average, is about 3 meters thick, although pressure ridges may be three times that thickness; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge)	vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii

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