TABLE II 

 Distance Table 



ARCTIC AND NORTHERN SEAS 



The Arctic Sea fills a deep, eccentric conical basin between tW' 

 great land masses, with its center toward Alaska and its long axi; 

 from Point Barrow to Rudolf Island in Franz Josef Archipelago 

 Although it covers about 5,000,000 square miles, it is small com- 

 pared with the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. On the surface, i1 

 appears as a gulf off the Atlantic, joined to the latter by the wide 

 Norwegian and Greenland Seas. 



However, consideration of the bottom relief shows that there are 

 three rather distinct basins. The first and largest is the central 

 polar basin. It extends to the rise between Spitsbergen and north- 

 eastern Greenland. The second is the Greenland Sea basin, ex- 

 tending from this rise to the ridge between Bear Island and Jan 

 Mayen Island. The third, or Norwegian basin, extends southward 

 to the Atlantic Ocean. Around the borders of the central basin 

 local water areas have been named as separate seas, such ae 

 Barents Sea, |Cara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukch- 

 Sea, and Beaufort Sea. 



The hydrographic survey of this sea area is not complete, but 

 soundings which have been made indicate depths of over 15,000 



32 



Figure 2-8. — Northern leas. 



