The Arctic

See also: Arctic (homonymy)

The Arctique is the area surrounding the North pole of the Ground, inside and with the accesses of the Polar circle. It is located contrary to the the Antarctic. The Arctic includes part of the Canada, Greenland (territory of the Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Arctic Ocean.

There exist several definitions of the artic region. The generally allowed limit is given by the Arctic Cercle (latitude 66° 33 ' NR), which marks separation between the midnight sun and the polar night. Other definitions are based on climatic and environmental data, like the isothermal curve correspondent with 10°C in July, which marks the limit beyond which the trees do not push any more. Politically and socially, the artic region includes the territories of the north of the eight Arctic states, plus the Lapland, although in natural science this part is regarded as subarctic.

The Arctic is made up mainly of a cold ocean (Banquise) surrounded by very cold grounds (Toundra). Men and many animal species live there, like:

the polar bear,
the Arctic fox,
the Reindeer (or caribou),
the Musk ox,
the Arctic Hare,
the Lemming.

The artic region is single by its nature. Local cultures and native-born people (Lappish Inuit, , Samoyède S,…) adapted to its cold and its extreme conditions (little or not vegetation, polar Nuit,…). It occupies a key position in physical, chemical and biological balance of planet. It is very sensitive to the climate changes and its reactions are reflected largely on the total state of the environment: this area is regarded by the researchers as the first indicator of the future modifications of the climate.

The name Arctique comes from the old Greek ἄρκτος ( árktos ) which means bear and refers to the Constellation S of the Grande Ourse and the Petite Ourse, located close to the celestial north pole.

Erosion under the high latitudes

In the Arctic or antarctic cold areas, the principal agent of erosion is freezing. The vegetable cover is indeed rare, the not very violent mode of precipitations and not very important human installations. One finds constraints and forms common to the high mountain (modelled glacial). However, the thermal amplitude is less violent and the slope is not obligatory. In certain areas slope and polar climate combine (Greenland, center of the Antarctic). The Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland would have torn off one meter of rock substrate in 180 years. The glaciers transport also moraines, domm in high mountain.

Fjord: very deep glaciated valley, usually narrow and at the escarpées coasts, being prolonged in lower part of the sea level and filled with salt water.
Iceberg: the icebergs result from marine erosion and the warming.
Fjell

The Pergélisol is another characteristic of the polar regions and sub-polar. The ground is permanently cold and on great depths (600 meters in Siberia), even if surface can thaw out in summer. The melt waters stagnate and form vast marshes. They feed from cast and the landslides on the slopes: it is the phenomenon of the solifluction. The forms related to permafrost are the hydrolaccolithes, the pingos, the palses, the pipkrakes)

Pollution

The environment in the Arctic is clean compared to the remainder of the ecosystem, but he suffers from strong Pollution S localized which endangers the people living close to these places. Because of the large marine and air currents world, the artic region is being the destination of many Polluant S transferred onto long distances, and their concentration exceeds in certain places that which have finds close to the cities densément populated. The Arctic indeed is covered in spring of a light fog ( Arctic Haze in English) which is allotted to these pollutants coming by far.

Retreat of the Ice-barrier

Natural resources

The artic region has interesting natural resources (oil, gas, fish, and even forests if the subarctic area is counted) accessible thanks to modern technologies and with the opening from the Russia. The Tourisme of mass in the cold and exotic zones also develops, but it is at the same time an opportunity and a threat for this area.

The Arctic is one of the vast last world areas remained in a wild state, and its importance in the safeguarding of the Biodiversité is paramount. The increase in the human presence destroys the natural habitat gradually: the Arctic is very sensitive to the erosion of the grounds and the disturbance of the rare places of reproduction of the local animal species.

Assessment of the environmental impact

For a positive development of the artic region, an estimate of the environmental impacts is necessary, and more especially the social impacts. The scientific data are still insufficient and do not allow to draw up a precise estimate.

It is important to develop a dialog between the new actors of the area, the business world and the local population in order to improve mutual comprehension and the often conflict needs for development. For that, it is necessary to facilitate the access to information to the local inhabitants, to set up an effective participative planning and to use its results as well as possible.

Policy and international cooperation

The artic region is of important international political interest. A co-operation with large scales started in the years 1990. Hundreds of scientists and specialists in the Arctic compiled many information.

Strategic interest

Certain countries affirm that the forever politically invested Arctic, and in same time, certain military powers gave him a great strategic importance. The Canada has a advanced station of alarm there, and in advertisement a great part. The Canadian navy regularly patrols there in order to affirm its sovereignty. In the years 1950 and 1960, the Arctic was often the place of tests of submarines, sonars and other new weapons. The establishment of Canadian sovereignty on the famous passage of the North-West the Arctic has, according to the Canadian government, for main aim to attack the questions of the impact of the climate changes in the Arctic and the Agreement about the territorial claims of the territory Inuit of Nunavut. The Canadian government announced in 2007 the granting of three billion dollars for the construction of boats of coastal patrols and a deep water port with Nanisivik in Nunavut.

During the Cold war, the area was narrowly supervised by the American army and NATO, thinking that strike them nuclear the USSR would start with the sending of ballistic missiles passing by the North pole towards the United States.

In 2001, Russia had deposited in front of the United Nations a request for fixing of the limits external of its continental shelf in the Arctic (the dorsals Lomonossov and Mendeleïev), like in the Bering Sea and Okhotsk (of a surface of 1,2 million square kilometers on the whole). By doing this, she affirmed her claims, disputed by her neighbors, in particular by the Canada, on the wide continental shelf rich in hydrocarbons and whose reserves are estimated at 10 billion tons. U.N. commission of the limits of the continental shelf which gathers representatives of 21 States with which Russia and who are charged to define the limits of the continental shelf in accordance with the Convention of the United Nations on the right of the sea of 1982, concluded that the abundant data by Moscow were not enough to consider the zones of the Arctic Ocean indicated like belonging to the Russian continental shelf, and recommended a complementary study. In July 2007, a Russian polar forwarding carried out a new diving (to -4200 m) and spectacular in the depths of the Arctic Ocean in order to collect additional evidence making it possible to support the Russian claims. A Russian titanium flag symbolically was also planted there.

The blaze of the price of the barrel of Pétrole supported a race with the nonprofitable reserves hitherto. A recent estimate showed that the Arctic could conceal nearly the quarter of the reserves of Hydrocarbure S remaining to be discovered in the world. New technologies, the retreat of the Ice-barrier following the Climate warming and the geographical proximity return these new seams attracting for Russia. From an economic point of view, a reduction in the polar ices would open new trade route for the ships in the Arctic, while returning by this fact oil easier to extract. Separately Russia and Canada, the zone of the Arctic is also coveted by the the United States, the Denmark and the Norway. Russia affirms however that she asserts only part of the dorsal Lomonossov, her prolongation beyond the north pole probably belonging to Canada or Denmark (via the Greenland).

External bonds

Site of [[international polar Foundation]] - Animations multimedia, projects, resources,…

Terra incognita : the exploration of the Canadian Arctic - historical Test, illustrated using charts, of engravings and photographs of time

Arctic Mission Arctic Mission is an scientific exhibition in the middle of the Arctic and the legendary passage of the North-West.

Arctic Mission Arctic Cyberdocumentaire Mission the cyberdocumentaire to revive the forwarding of Sedna IV in the Arctic!

Forwarding in the Arctic Mission with the North pole aboard the ship Polarstern

Simple: Arctic

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