Soil / Seabed Topography
The Arctic Ocean consists of two main deep basins that can be split up into four smaller basins by three transoceanic submarine ridges. The central of these ridges extends from the continental shelf off Ellesmere Island to the New Siberian Islands, a distance of 1,770 km.
The Lomonosov Ridge has an average height of about 3050 meters with respect to the seafloor and divides the Arctic Ocean into two seperate basins, which are referred to as the Eurasia Basin and the Amerasia Basin. The Lomonosov Ridge varies from 65 to 123 km in width, and its crest ranges in depth between 950 and 1650 meters.
The Eurasia Basin is divided into two smaller basins by a trans-Arctic Ocean extension of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This Arctic segment of the global ridge system is called the Nansen Cordillera. The Fram Basin lies between the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge and the Lomonosov Ridge at a depth of 4300 meters. The smallest of the Arctic Ocean subbasins, called the Nansen Basin, lies between the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge and the Eurasian continental margin and has a floor depth of 4200 meters.
The Amerasia Basin is divided into two basins by the Alpha Ridge, a broad chain of subsea mountains that reach up to water depths of about 1400 meters. The Makarov Basin lies between the Alpha Cordillera and the Lomonosov Ridge, and its floor is located at a depth of 4020 meters. The largest subbasin of the Arctic Ocean is the Canada Basin, which extends approximately 1130 km from the Beaufort Shelf to the Alpha Ridge. The average depth of this basin is 3800 meters.
Arctic