- Most of the Arctic Ocean is permanently covered with a vast floating raft of sea ice.
- Temperatures are low all year round, averaging -30°C in winter and sometimes dropping to -70°C.
- During the long winters, which last more than four months, the Sun never rises above the horizon.
- The Arctic gets its name from arctos, the Greek word for ‘bear, because the Great Bear constellation is above the North Pole.
- There are three kinds of sea ice in the Arctic: polar ice, pack ice and fast ice.
- Polar ice is the raft of ice that never melts through.
- Polar ice may be as thin as 2 m in places in summer, but in winter it is up to 50 m thick.
- Pack ice forms around the edge of the polar ice and only freezes completely in winter.
- The ocean swell breaks and crushes the pack ice into chunky ice blocks and fantastic ice sculptures.
- Fast ice forms in winter between pack ice and the land around the Arctic Ocean. It gets its name because it is held fast to the shore. It cannot move up and down with the ocean as the pack ice does.
- The seal is one of the few creatures that can survive the bitter cold of the Arctic winter.
Arctic Ocean Facts
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