INTRODUCTION 



"World Ocean" is the name given the sea waters that cover the earth's surface in a continuous 

 sheet. The World Ocean is divided into four parts: the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Arctic 

 Oceans. Everling and I drew the boundaries between these oceans on the basis of least depths. Of 

 course, such a delineation is more or less arbitrary, but we consider that the depth of the divides, 

 i. e. the depth of the submarine elevations and ranges which separate the parts of the ocean, is the 

 best index of the independence of their hydrologic regime. 



Following this concept, the sea boundaries between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans are: 



(1) the straits between North America and Greenland (between Boothia Peninsula and 

 Greenland at 82° north); 



(2) the straits between Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia. 



The sea boundary between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans is the submarine ridge lying some- 

 what to the north of Bering Strait. 



At present, because of insufficient information, it is impossible to calculate the area cross 

 sections of the straits joining the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans through Baffin Bay. The total area 

 cross section of all the straits between Greenland and the Scandinavian peninsula is about 370 

 square km. The area cross section of Bering Strait is only about 2. 5 square km. Thus, the 

 Arctic Ocean communicates much more freely with the Atlantic Ocean than with the Pacific. It is 

 also very significant that the maximum water depth above the sill at Bering Strait is no more than 

 40 m, while it is about 440 m above the sill between Greenland and Scandinavia. 



On examining the bathymetric charts of the World Ocean, it is easy to see that the submarine 

 ranges and elevations divide the individual oceans into a number of ocean basins. Each of these 

 basins includes the seas and gulfs adjacent to it. Accordingly, we have divided the Arctic Ocean 

 into two ocean basins, the North European and the Arctic. 



(1) The North European Basin is situated between Greenland, Spitsbergen, Franz Joseph Land, 

 Novaya Zemlya, the north and northwest coasts of Europe from Yugorskii Shar to Utsire Island 

 (Norway) off the southern coast of Scandinavia, the Shetland and Faroe Islands and Iceland and in- 

 cludes the Greenland and Norwegian Seas (separated by a submarine fold stretching from Spits- 

 bergen through Bjorn8ya and Jan Mayen to Iceland), the Scandinavian Fjord Sea (separated from 

 the Norwegian Sea by a multitude of islands, reefs and banks along the edge of the Norwegian fjords), 

 the Barents and White Seas. 



It is difficult to draw a physical-geographical boundary between the North European Basin 

 and the Barents Sea, since the depths of the Norwegian Sea between Spitsbergen and Scandinavia 



