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Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen Island, a part of the Kingdom of Norway, is a 373 km² arctic volcanic island partly covered by glaciers and divided into two parts by a narrow isthmus. It lies 600km north of Iceland, 500km east of Greenland and 1000km west of the Norwegian mainland at . The island is mountainous, the highest summit being Beerenberg in the north (2277 m).

Economy

Jan Mayen Island has no exploitable natural resources. Economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway's radio and meteorological stations located on the island. It has one unpaved airstrip about 1585 meters long, and its 124.1 kilometers of coast include no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages. Commercial whaling took place between 1633 and 1640 by the Dutch but ended when the Dutch team of seven died of scurvy and the Greenland right whale nearly became extinct. A dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark with the greater area of sovereignty. Jan Mayen is an integrated geographical body of Norway. Since 1995 it has been administered by the county governor (fylkesmann) of Nordland; however, some authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian Logistics Organisation-CIS, a branch of the armed forces.

History

Henry Hudson discovered the island in 1607 and called it Hudson's Tutches or Touches. Thereafter it was observed several times by navigators who successively claimed its discovery and renamed it. Thus, in 1611 or the following year whalers from Hull named it Trinity Island; in 1612 Jean Vrolicq, a French whaler, called it Île de Richelieu; and in 1614 English captain John Clarke named it Isabella, but it didn't stick and later in the same year Joris Carolus named one of its promontories Jan Meys Hoel, after the captain of one of his ships. The present name of the island is derived from this, the claim of its 1611 discovery by a Dutch navigator, Jan Mayen, being unsupportable. The island is inhabited by personnel operating a Long Range Navigation (Loran-C) base with a staff of 14 and a weather services station with a staff of four. The staff members of both stations live in Olonkinbyen (English: Olonkin City), as the living quarters by the Loran-C base are called.The island has no indigenous inhabitants, but is assigned the ISO 3166-1 country code SJ, the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .no (.sj is [http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/bv-sj.html allocated but not used]) and data code JN. Its amateur radio call sign prefix is JX.

External links

- [http://home.online.no/~vteigen/satt.html Satellite Radar image of Jan Mayen]
- [http://home.online.no/~vteigen/Piclink.html Photographs and information on Jan Mayen]
- [http://www.jan-mayen.no/ Jan Mayen crew]
- [http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0017583 LORAN-C mast Jan Mayen] Category:North Atlantic Islands Category:Ridge volcanoes Category:Volcanoes of Norway Category:Islands of Norway Category:Volcanoes of the Atlantic Ocean Category: Arctic islands zh-min-nan:Jan Mayen ja:ヤンマイエン島

Norway

The Kingdom of Norway (Norwegian: Kongeriket Norge / Kongeriket Noreg) is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia, with territorial waters bordering Danish and British waters. Norway's extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean is home to its famous fjords. The country has a very elongated shape. The arctic island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are under Norwegian sovereignty and are part of the Kingdom. Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and Peter I Island in the South Pacific Ocean are also external dependencies, but these are not considered part of the Kingdom. Additionally, Norway has a claim for Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica.

History

In the 9th century Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to tradition, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one and in 872 with the battle of Hafrsfjord, he established a feudal state. The Viking age (8th to 11th centuries) was one of national unification and expansion. The Norwegians settled on Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of the British Islands and attempted to settle at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada (perhaps the Vinland of The Saga of Eric the Red). Norwegians founded the modern day Irish cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford and captured the Anglo-Saxon city of Eoforwic renaming it Jorvik, today known as York. The Norwegian Rollo invaded and was ceded Normandy by the French king Charles the Simple in 911. Rollo's great-great-great-grandson William the Conqueror successfully invaded and conquered England in 1066. The Norwegian royal line died out in 1387, partly because of the grand recession after the black plague in 1349, wiping out the majority of the population, and partly because Queen Margrethe's son, heir to the throne, died at barely 17 years of age. The country entered a long period as the weaker part of a union first with Denmark and Sweden – the Kalmar Union – then with Denmark. Margrethe was also queen of Denmark and Sweden. With the forced introduction of Protestantism in 1537, Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of Saint Olav at the Nidaros shrine. With them, ironically, went much of the contact with the cultural and economical life of the rest of Europe. Also, the 17th century saw Norway's total area decrease with the loss of the territories Bohuslän, Jämtland and Härjedalen to Sweden. In the light of national romanticism during the 19th century, this period was by some called the "400-year night". After Denmark-Norway sided with Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars, Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden in 1814. However, Norway declared her independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models and elected the Danish prince Christian Fredrik as king on 17 May 1814. Norway was forced into a personal union with Sweden, but kept its liberal constitution and independent institutions, except for the foreign service. Growing Norwegian dissatisfaction with the union during the late 19th century, national romanticism, growing national culture, literature (Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson), painting (Hans Gude, Adolph Tiedemand), and music (Edvard Grieg) spawned the dissolution of the union on 7 June 1905. The Norwegian government offered the throne of Norway to Danish Prince Carl. After a referendum confirming the monarchy, the Parliament unanimously elected him king. He took the name of Haakon VII, after the medieval kings of independent Norway. In 1913, Norwegian women gained suffrage. Norway was a neutral country during World War I. Norway also attempted to claim neutrality during World War II, but was invaded by German forces on the 9th of April 1940 (Operation Weserübung). The Allies also had plans to invade Norway, in order to take advantage of her strategically important Atlantic coast, but were thwarted by the German operation. Norway put up a stiff fight against the German occupation and armed resistance in Norway went on for two months. King Haakon and the Norwegian government continued the fight from exile in Rotherhithe, London. On the day of the invasion, the collaborative leader of the small National-Socialist party Nasjonal Samling — Vidkun Quisling — tried to seize power, but was forced by the German occupiers to step aside. Real power was wielded by the leader of the German occupation authority, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. Quisling, as minister president, later formed a government under German control. During the five years of Nazi occupation, Norwegians built a strong resistance movement which fought the German occupation forces with both armed resistance and civil disobedience. In 1944, the Germans evacuated the provinces of Finnmark and northern Troms, using a scorched earth tactic to create a vast area of No-man's land in response to the Red Army attacking their positions in eastern Finnmark. The Soviets attacked into eastern Finnmark to create a buffer zone after pushing the German forces out of the arctic Kola peninsula. The Russians peacefully returned the area to Norwegian control after the war. The German forces in Norway surrendered on 8 May 1945. The occupation during World War II disturbed the Norwegians' confidence in neutrality, and they turned instead to collective security. Norway was one of the signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 and was a founding member of the United Nations, providing its first secretary general – Trygve Lie. Norway has twice voted against joining the European Union (in 1972 and 1994), but is associated with the EU via the European Economic Area. However, Norway is a member of the much smaller European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Politics

Norway is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. The Royal House is a branch of the princely family of Glücksburg, originally from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. [http://www.kongehuset.no/dt_kongehuset_allAtOnce.asp?ogid=21&mgid=21&gid=54&aid=] The functions of the King, Harald V, are mainly ceremonial, but he has influence as the symbol of national unity. Although the constitution of 1814 grants important executive powers to the king, these are almost always exercised by the Council of State in the name of the King (King's Council, or cabinet). The reserve powers vested in the Monarch by the constitution are however significant and an important security part of the role of the Monarchy, and were last used during World War II. The Council of State consists of a Prime Minister and his council, formally appointed by the King. Since 1884, parliamentarism has ensured that the cabinet must have the support of the parliament, so the appointment by the King is a formality. parliamentarism The Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, currently has 169 members (increased from 165, effective from the elections of 12 September 2005). The members are elected from the 19 counties for 4-year terms according to a system of proportional representation. After elections the Storting divides into two chambers, the Odelsting and the Lagting, which meet separately or jointly depending on the agenda. Laws are proposed by the Odelsting and decided by the Lagting or, in case of disagreement, by the joint Storting. Impeachment cases are raised by the Odelsting and judged by the Lagting as part of the High Court of the Realm. Apart from this, the Storting functions as a unicameral parliament. The regular courts include the Supreme Court or Høyesterett (17 permanent judges and a chief justice), courts of appeal, city and district courts, and conciliation councils. Judges attached to regular courts are appointed by the King in council after nomination by the Ministry of Justice. The special High Court of the Realm, which consists of the Supreme Court plus the Lagting, hears impeachment cases. In order to form a government, more than half (currently at least 10 out of 19 members) of the Council of State are required to belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Counties

Evangelical Lutheran Church Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called fylker (singular fylke) and 433 kommuner (singular kommune). Fylke and kommune are officially translated to English as county and municipality. The fylke is the intermediate administration between state and municipality.
- Akershus
- Aust-Agder
- Buskerud
- Finnmark
- Hedmark
- Hordaland
- Møre og Romsdal
- Nordland
- Nord-Trøndelag
- Oppland
- Oslo
- Østfold
- Rogaland
- Sogn og Fjordane
- Sør-Trøndelag
- Telemark
- Troms
- Vest-Agder
- Vestfold See also Regions of Norway.

Geography

Regions of Norway The landscape is generally rugged and mountainous, topped by glaciers, and its coastline of over 83,000 km [http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/environment/032091-991558/dok-bn.html] is punctuated by steep-sloped inlets known as fjords, as well as a multitude of islands and islets. The Northern part of the country is also known as the Land of the Midnight Sun because of its northern location, north of the Arctic Circle, where for part of each summer the sun does not set, and in winter much of its land remains dark for long periods. The southern part is not known for this, however in summertime, the sun is only away for a few hours. Norway is bounded for its entire length by seas of the North Atlantic Ocean: the North Sea to the southwest and its large inlet the Skagerrak to the south, the Norwegian Sea to the west, and the Barents Sea to the northeast. To the east, in order from south to north, it shares a long border with Sweden, a shorter one with Finland, and a still shorter one with Russia. Norway's highest point is the Galdhøpiggen at 2,469 m. With a maximum depth of 514 m, Hornindalsvatnet is Norway's and Europe's deepest lake. The Norwegian climate is fairly temperate, especially along the coast under the influence of the Gulf Stream. The inland climate can be more severe and to the north more subarctic conditions are found, especially in Finnmark. Climate data for some cities in different regions of the country; base period 1961-1990 (temperatures are 24hr average): Data from Norges Meteorologiske Institutt (Norwegian Meteorological Institute). Note: Temperatures have tended to be higher in recent years (see main article).
[http://met.no/english/climate/ Norwegian Meteorological Institute: The climate of Norway]

Economy

main article The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of social capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises). The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals - and is highly dependent on its petroleum production and international oil prices; in 2004, oil and gas accounted for 50% of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway, which is not a member of OPEC. The last 25 years, the Norwegian economy has shown various signs of the economic phenomenon called Dutch disease. Norway opted to stay out of the European Union during a referendum in 1972, and again in November 1994. However, Norway, together with Iceland and Liechtenstein, participate in the EU's single market via the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement. In 2000 the government sold one-third of the then 100% state-owned oil company Statoil. The economic growth was 0.8% in 1999, 2.7% in 2000, and 1.3% in 2001. After little growth in 2002 and 2003, the economy expanded more rapidly in 2004. With arguably the highest quality of life worldwide, Norwegians still worry about that time in the next two decades when the oil and gas begin to run out. Accordingly, Norway has been saving its oil-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund, which is invested abroad and at the end of the second quarter of 2005 was valued at 181.5 billion US dollars . Economical overheating is avoided by the partial saving - rather than spending - of the oil revenues which are of very big importance for a relatively small country.

Demographics

The Norwegian population is 4.6 million and increases by 0.4% per year (estimate July 2004). Ethnically most Norwegians are Nordic / North Germanic, while small minorities in the north are Finnish (see also Cwen). The Sami are instead considered an indigenous people, and traditionally live in the Northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The largest concentration of Sami people is, however, found in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. In recent years, immigration has accounted for more than half the population growth, and 7.9% of the population are immigrants as of 1 January 2005. Norway only takes in a very limited number of asylum seekers and aims to repatriate these people as quickly as possible. The largest immigrant groups are Pakistanis, Swedes, Danes, Iraqis, Vietnamese and Somalis. (Here, immigrants are defined as persons with two foreign-born parents [http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/00/minifakta_en/en/minifakta.pdf].) Approximately 86% of the inhabitants are members of the Evangelic Lutheran Church of Norway (state church). Other Christian societies total about 4.5% (the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, the Catholic Church, Pentecostal congregations, the Methodist Church, etc.). Among non-Christian religions, Islam is the largest in Norway with about 1.5%, and other religions are at less than 1% each. About 1.5% belong to the secular Human Ethical Union. As of 1 January 2003 approximately 5% of the population are unaffiliated ([http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/07/02/10/trosamf_en/]). The Norwegian language has two official written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. They have officially equal status, i.e. they are both used in public administration, in schools, churches, and on radio and television, but Bokmål is used by the majority. Around 95 percent of the population speak Norwegian as their native tongue, although many speak dialects that differ significantly from the written language. Nevertheless, all of the Norwegian dialects are interintelligible. Several Sami languages are spoken and written throughout the country, especially in the north, by the Sami people. The Germanic Norwegian language and the Finno-Ugric Sami languages are entirely unrelated. However, the Finnish language bears some similarities to the Sami language.

Culture

Famous Norwegians include the playwrights/novelists Baron Ludvig Holberg and Henrik Ibsen, explorers Roald Amundsen, Fridtjof Nansen, and Thor Heyerdahl, expressionist painter Edvard Munch and the romanticist composer Edvard Grieg. The playwright/novelists Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Knut Hamsun and Sigrid Undset have all won the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1903, 1920 and 1928 respectively. Norwegians celebrate their national day on May 17, Constitution Day. Many people wear bunad (traditional costumes) and most participate in or watch the 17 May parade through the towns. Henrik Wergeland was the founder of the 17 May parade. These parades differ markedly from those of many other countries in that, rather than the military parades of, for example, France, they consist of children.
- Music of Norway
- Norse mythology
- [http://www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfilms/ Norwegian films]
- Norwegian Theatres

Miscellaneous topics

- Holidays in Norway
- Infrastructure in Norway
- Car numberplates in Norway
- Communications
- Power supply
- Transportation
- Foreign relations of Norway
- Military of Norway
- List of cities in Norway
- List of national parks of Norway
- List of Norwegian companies
- List of Norwegian language radio stations
- List of Norwegian newspapers
- List of Norwegian television channels
- List of Norwegians
- List of schools in Norway
- Norwegian literature
- Norwegian national football team
- Norwegian Premier League
- Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund
- Regions of Norway
- Tourism in Norway
- Cuisine of Norway
- Philharmonic Orchestras in Norway
- Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
- Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

International rankings

- [http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html GDP per capita] - 4th of 231 countries
- Human Development Index - 1st of 177 countries 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001
- Index of Economic Freedom - 29th of 155 countries
- Reporters Without Borders Worldwide press freedom index - 1st of 166 countries 2003, 2002
- [http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2004/images/pdf/SOWM_2004_final.pdf Save the Children: State of the World's Mothers 2004] Children's Index: Rank 1, Women's Index: Rank 6, Mother's Index: Rank 6 (119 countries)
- [http://www.transparency.org/pressreleases_archive/2004/2004.10.20.cpi.en.html Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2004] - 8th of 145 countries
- [http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Global+Competitiveness+Programme%5CGlobal+Competitiveness+Report World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005] - 6th of 104 countries

External links

- [http://www.norway.info Norway.info] - Norway - the Official site
- [http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/00/minifakta_en/en/index.html Minifacts about Norway from Statistics Norway]
- [http://odin.dep.no/odin/english/bn.html ODIN] Information from the Government and Ministries
- [http://www.stortinget.no/english Official site of the Parliament (Stortinget)]
- [http://www.kongehuset.no/default.asp?lang=eng Official site of the Royal House]
- [http://www.norway.org Official website for the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, DC]
- [http://www.norway.no Norway.no] - Official portal
- [http://www.lovdata.no/info/lawdata.html Translated Norwegian legislation]
- [http://www.odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/system/032005-990424/ The Norwegian Constitution in English]
- [http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/publikasjoner/skriftserie/18/ Sources to Legal Information in Norway]
- [http://www.norges-bank.no/english/notes_and_coins/ Norges Bank - current notes and coins]
- [http://www.norges-bank.no/english/ The Central Bank of Norway]
- [http://www.world-newspapers.com/norway.html Norwegian news in English]
- [http://odin.dep.no/ud/html/2000/minifakta/e/eng-02.html Public holidays in Norway]
- [http://ngis2.statkart.no/norgesglasset/default.html Searchable map of Norway]
- [http://www.domstol.no/Domstolene/index.asp?startID=&topExpand=1000010&menuitemid=1000033&strUrl=//internet/showObject.asp?i=1000107 The Norwegian court system]
- [http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp237_e.htm WTO: Trade Policy Review: Norway]
- [http://www.stavanger-web.com/jul/christma.htm Christmas in Norway]
- [http://www.studyinnorway.no/ Study In Norway] als:Norwegen zh-min-nan:Norge [[got:

Arctic

The Arctic is the area around the Earth's North Pole. The Arctic includes parts of Russia, Alaska (United States), Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Iceland, and Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland), as well as the Arctic Ocean. There are numerous definitions for the Arctic region. The boundary is generally considered to be north of the Arctic Circle (66° 33’N), which is the limit of the midnight sun and the polar night. Other definitions are based on climate and ecology, such as the 10°C (50°F) July isotherm, which also roughly corresponds to the tree line in most of the Arctic. Socially and politically, the Arctic region includes the northern territories of the eight Arctic states, including Lapland, although by natural science definitions much of this territory is considered subarctic. The Arctic is mostly a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by tree-less, frozen ground, that teems with life, including organisms living in the ice, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals and human societies. The Arctic region is by its nature a unique area. The cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions. From the perspective of the physical, chemical and biological balance in the world, the Arctic region is in a key position. It reacts sensitively particularly to changes in the climate, which reflect extensively back on the global state of the environment. From the perspective of research into climatic change, the Arctic region is considered a so-called-early warning system. The Arctic is also known as the Land of the Midnight Sun as it is within the Arctic Circle. The name Arctic comes from the ancient Greek αρκτος, meaning 'bear', and is a reference to the constellations of the Great Bear and Little Bear, which are located near the North Star (which is actually part of the Little Bear).

Nature and natural resources

Nature in the Arctic is comparatively clean although there are certain ecologically difficult localized pollution problems that present a serious threat to people’s health living around these pollution sources. Due to the prevailing worldwide sea and air currents, the Arctic area is the fall out region for long-range transport pollutants and in some places the concentrations exceed the levels of densely populated urban areas. The Arctic region includes sizeable potential natural resources (oil, gas, minerals, forest and fish) to which modern technology and the opening up of Russia have given significant new opportunities. The interest of the tourism industry in the cold and exotic Arctic is also on the increase. This is for example, seen in the rise in international tourism as a significant opportunity but also as a threat. The Arctic region is one of the last and most extensive continuous wilderness areas in the world and its significance in preserving biodiversity and genotypes is considerable. The increasing presence of people fragments vital habitats. The Arctic is particularly susceptible to the abrasion of groundcover and to the disturbance of the rare reproduction places of the animals that are characteristic to the region. External link: [http://amap.no/ AMAP - the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme]

Arctic cultures

Also noteworthy is the fact that a significant proportion of the population in the region are indigenous peoples (e.g. the Nenets, Koms, Khants and Sami) who practice subsistence livelihoods such as reindeer husbandry and fishing and whose rights are many times in jeopardy due to "development".
- Aleut
- Athabaskan
- Chukchi
- Inuit
- Inupiaq
- Nenets
- Pomor
- Saami
- Yup'ik External link: [http://www.allthingsarctic.com/people/index.aspx Native peoples]

The changing Arctic

Along with increasing utilization, it is likely that in the coming decades, new investments, industry and building an infrastructure as well as the increasing mobility of goods, services, people and capital are to be expected. These will all have an effect on the environment of the region and on the local conditions of the population and indigenous peoples. The above-described global change is expected to have the overwhelmingly large impact in the near future on the diversity of nature and cultures in the arctic and northern regions and on the recreational value of the Arctic and its natural resources. The impacts from the changes will reflect in many ways on the ecosystems of the region, its biodiversity, livelihoods, social and legal structures and indirectly on almost all life in the region. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), released in November 2004, details some of the future scenarios for long-term climate change that are already beginning to be seen in the Arctic region today. NOAA tracks the [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/overview.shtml current state of the Arctic ecosystems and climate] on the near-realtime [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/ Arctic Change website]. A narrative style is used to highlight land and marine ecosystems, the cryosphere, Arctic and sub-Arctic human impacts, and an overall [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/indicators.shtml summary] evaluates recent reports against historical information. External links:
- [http://www.acia.uaf.edu/ ACIA Report]
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/ Arctic Change website] - NOAA website provides up-to-date information on the current state of Arctic ecosystems and climate in historical context.

Environmental impact assessment

From the perspective of positive development in the Arctic region, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is in a key position. In the Arctic region, it is important that in a process, special attention is given to assessing social impacts. It is generally known that scientific information focused on the Arctic region is insufficient, so the actors conducting an EIA do not get sufficient material in order to compile a precise assessment. Developing a dialogue between new actors in the region, business life and the local population is important so that mutual understanding and often conflicting needs for development can be improved. Improving access to information by local inhabitants, well functioning participatory planning and ensuring the optimum use of its results are part of this activity. The horizontal processing of administration by different sectors in society that is required for an EIA necessitates for its support the production of strong multidisciplinary information. Managing and analyzing the above-mentioned multidimensional and demanding process requires combining many scientific fields and methods and further scientific analysis and development of functional models.

International cooperation and politics

The Arctic region is one of the important focuses of international political interest. International Arctic cooperation got underway on a broad scale well over ten years ago. The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), hundreds of scientists and specialists of the Arctic Council, the Barents Council and its regional cooperation have compiled high quality information

A strategic military region

The Arctic has never been under the political control of any nation although some nations' militaries have attached a strategic importance to the region. In the 1950s and 1960s, the arctic was often used by submarines to test new weapons, sonar equipment, and depth testing. During the Cold War, the Arctic region was extensively monitored by the United States military, since it was the opinion of the said military that the first warnings of a Soviet Union nuclear strike would have been indicated by ICBMs launched over the North Pole towards the United States. The United States placed such importance on the region that two military decorations, the Arctic Service Ribbon and Coast Guard Arctic Service Medal, were established for military duty performed within the arctic circle.

References

- [http://www.arcticcentre.org Arctic Centre, Rovaniemi] Arctic research
- [http://www.wordreference.com/english/definition.asp?en=arctic WordReference.com Dictionary] Etymology
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/reference_maps/pdf/arctic.pdf CIA World Factbook 2002 - Arctic Region] Large version of the arctic region map
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov Arctic Theme Page] Comprehensive Arctic Resource from NOAA.
- [http://www.beringclimate.noaa.gov Bering Sea Climate and Ecosystem] Current state of the Bering Sea Climate and Ecosystem. Comprehensive resource on the Bering Sea with viewable oceanographic, atmospheric, climatic, biological and fisheries data with ecosystem relevance, recent trends, essays on key Bering Sea issues, maps, photos, animals and more. From NOAA.
- [http://www.unaami.noaa.gov Arctic time series: The Unaami Data collection] Viewable interdisciplinary, diverse collection of Arctic variables from different geographic regions and data types.
- [http://www.allthingsarctic.com/exploration/index.aspx Arctic exploration and history]
- [http://www.allthingsarctic.com/science/index.aspx Arctic research]

External links

- [http://www.arctic-council.org Arctic Council]
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov Arctic]
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/ Near-Realtime Arctic Change Indictors]
- [http://maps.grida.no/arctic Arctic Environmental Atlas] Circum-Arctic interactive map, with multiple layers of information
- [http://www.globio.info/region/polar/#arctic GLOBIO Human Impact maps] How does humans influence one of the last remaining wild places on the globe
- [http://www.vitalgraphics.net/arctic.cfm Vital Arctic Graphics] Overview and case studies of the Arctic environment and the Arctic Indigenous Peoples.
- [http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=artic&lang=En Arctic and Taiga Canadian Atlas]

Glacier

:This article is about the geographical formation. For the professional wrestler, see Ray Lloyd A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity. A glacier is formed by multi-year ice accretion in sloping terrain. Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and second only to the oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. Glaciers can be found on every continent except Australia. Geologic features associated with glaciers include end, lateral, ground and medial moraines that form from glacially transported rocks and debris; U-shaped valleys and corries (cirques) at their heads, and the glacier fringe, which is the area where the glacier has recently melted. cirques

Types of glaciers

cirques There are two main types of glaciers: alpine glaciers, which are found in mountain terrains, and continental glaciers, which are associated with ice ages and can cover large areas of continents. Most of the concepts in this article apply equally to alpine glaciers and continental glaciers. A temperate glacier is one where liquid water is present at least part of the year. Polar glaciers are always below the freezing point. The smallest alpine glaciers form in mountain valleys and are referred to as valley glaciers. Larger ice layers can cover an entire mountain, mountain chain or even a volcano; this type is known as an ice cap. Ice caps feed outlet glaciers, tongues of ice that extend into valleys below, far from the margins of those larger ice masses. Outlet glaciers are formed by the movement of ice from a polar ice cap, or an ice cap from mountainous regions, to the sea. The largest glaciers are continental ice sheets, enormous masses of ice that are not affected by the landscape and extend over the entire surface, except on the margins, where they are thinnest. Antarctica and Greenland are the only places where continental ice sheets currently exist. These regions contain vast quantities of fresh water. The volume of ice is so large that if the Greenland ice sheet melted, it would cause sea levels to rise some six meters all around the world. If the Antarctic ice sheet melted, sea levels would rise up to 65 meters. Plateau glaciers resemble ice sheets, but on a smaller scale. They cover some plateaus and high-altitude areas. This type of glacier appears in many places, especially in Iceland and some of the large islands in the Arctic Ocean, and throughout the northern Pacific Cordillera from southern British Columbia to western Alaska. Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that flow into the sea. As the ice reaches the sea pieces break off, or calve, forming icebergs. Most tidewater glaciers calve above sea level, which often results in a tremendous splash as the iceberg strikes the water. If the water is deep, glaciers can calve underwater, causing the iceberg to suddenly explode up out of the water. The Hubbard Glacier is the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska and has a calving face over ten kilometers long. Yakutat Bay and Glacier Bay are both popular with cruise ship passengers because of the huge glaciers descending to them. Piedmont glaciers occupy broad lowlands at the base of steep mountains, and form when one or more alpine glaciers surge from the confining walls of mountain valleys. The size of piedmont glaciers varies greatly: among the largest is the Malaspina Glacier, which extends along the length of the southern coast of Alaska. It covers more than 5,000 km² of the coastal plain at the foot of the Saint Elias range. And it is only a part of the much bigger Kluane Icecap, which spans the Mount St. Elias and Chugach groups of mountain ranges all the way from the Malaspina Glacier to the Copper River and well into the southwestern Yukon, as well as southeast from the Malaspina towards the Iskut River in British Columbia. The highest alpine glacier in the world is the Siachen Glacier, which is also a zone of political conflict between India and Pakistan.

Formation of glaciers

Siachen Glacier The snow which forms glaciers is subject to repeated freezing and thawing, which changes it into a form of granular ice called névé. Under the pressure of the layers of ice and snow above it, this granular ice fuses into denser firn. Over a period of years, layers of firn undergo further compaction and become glacial ice. Glacial ice contains minute air bubbles as a result, giving it a distinctive blue tint due to Rayleigh scattering. The lower layers of glacial ice flow and deform plastically under the pressure, allowing the glacier as a whole to move slowly like a viscous fluid. Glaciers do not need a slope to flow, being driven by the continuing accumulation of new snow at their source. The upper layers of glaciers are more brittle, and often form deep cracks known as crevasses as they flex. These crevasses make travel over glaciers dangerous. Glacial meltwaters flow throughout and underneath glaciers, carving channels in the ice similar to caves in rock and also helping to lubricate the glacier's movement. In the summer, the melted ice from the glacier alone may be enough to create a stream, and while the glacier may be a barren waste of dense ice, fertile land is often nearby.

Anatomy of a glacier

cave The upper part of a glacier that receives most of the snowfall is called the accumulation zone. As a rule of thumb, the accumulation zone accounts for 60-70% of the glacier's surface area. The depth of ice in the accumulation zone exerts a downward force sufficient to cause deep erosion of the rock in this area. After the glacier is gone, this often leaves a bowl or amphitheater-shaped depression called a cirque. On the opposite end of the glacier, at its foot or terminal, is the deposition or ablation zone, where more ice is lost through melting than gained from snowfall and sediment is deposited. The place where the glacier thins to nothing is called the ice front. The altitude where the two zones meet is called the equilibrium line. At this altitude, the amount of new snow gained by accumulation is equal to the amount of ice lost through ablation. The downward erosive forces of the accumulation zone and the tendency of the ablation zone to deposit sediment also cancel each other out. Erosive lateral forces are not canceled; therefore, glaciers turn v-shaped river-carved valleys into u-shaped glacial valleys. The "health" of a glacier is defined by the area of the accumulation zone compared to the ablation zone. Healthy glaciers have large accumulation zones. Several non-linear relationships define the relation between accumulation and ablation. The worldwide shrinking of 70% of glaciers [http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/064.htm] is among the evidence for global warming. Approximately 30% of glaciers are advancing. Even in very cold climates, there may be unglaciated areas, which receive too little precipitation to form permanent ice. This was the case in most of Siberia, central and northern Alaska and all of Manchuria during glacial periods of the Quaternary, and occurs today in that part of the Andes between 19°S and 27°S above the hyperarid Atacama Desert where, although the mountains reach 6700 metres above sea level, the cold Humboldt Current competely suppresses precipitation. During ice ages, continental glaciers may be as much as 1500 meters thick. A more extreme instance of glacial growth may have occurred during the Snowball Earth period. In the past several centuries the Earth's glaciers have generally been retreating, often dramatically.

Glacial motion

Earth Ice behaves like an easily breaking solid until its thickness exceeds about 50 meters (160 ft). Below that depth the increased pressure causes ice to become plastic and flow. The glacial ice is made up of layers of molecules stacked on top of each other, with relatively weak bonds between the layers. When the stress exceeds the inter-layer binding strength, the layers start to slide past each other. Another type of movement is basal gliding. In this process, the whole glacier moves over the terrain on which it sits, lubricated by thawed ice. As the pressure increases toward the base of the glacier, the melting point of water decreases, and the ice melts. Friction between ice and rock and geothermal heat from the Earth's interior also contribute to thawing. The top 50 meters of the glacier are more rigid. In this section, known as the fracture zone, there are no layers which slide past each other; instead the ice mostly moves as a single unit. Ice in the fracture zone moves over the top of the lower section. When the glacier moves through irregular terrain, cracks form in the fracture zone. These cracks can be up to 50 meters deep, at which point they meet the plastic flow underneath that seals them.

Speed of glacial movement

The speed of glacial displacement is partly determined by friction. Friction makes the ice at the bottom of the glacier move slower than the upper portion. In alpine glaciers, friction is also generated at the valley's side walls, which slows the edges relative to the center. This has been confirmed by experiments in the 19th century, in which stakes were planted in a line across an alpine glacier, and as time passed, those in the center moved further. Mean speeds vary; some have speeds so slow that trees can establish themselves among the deposited scourings. In other cases they can move as fast as many meters per day, as is the case of Byrd Glacier, an overflowing glacier in Antarctica which moves 750-800 meters per year (some 2 meters (6 ft) per day), according to studies using satellites. Many glaciers have periods of very rapid advancement called surges.[http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/research/glaciology/maths.htm] These glaciers exhibit normal movement until suddenly they accelerate, then return to their previous state. During these surges, the glacier may reach velocities up to 1000 times greater than normal.

Moraines

Glacial moraines are formed by the deposition of material from a glacier and are exposed after the glacier has retreated. These features usually appear as linear mounds of till, a poorly-sorted mixture of rock, gravel and boulders within a matrix of a fine powdery material. Terminal or end moraines are formed at the foot or terminal end of a glacier, lateral moraines are formed on the sides of the glacier, and medial moraines are formed down the center. Less obvious is the ground moraine, also called glacial drift, which often blankets the surface underneath much of the glacier downslope from the equilibrium line. Glacial meltwaters contain rock flour, an extremely fine powder ground from the underlying rock by the glacier's movement. Other features formed by glacial deposition include long snake-like ridges formed by streambeds under glaciers, known as eskers, and distinctive streamlined hills, known as drumlins. Stoss-and-lee erosional features are formed by glaciers and show the direction of their movement. Long linear rock scratches (that follow the glacier's direction of movement) are called glacial striations, and divots in the rock are called chatter marks. Both of these features are left on the surfaces of stationary rock that were once under a glacier and were formed when loose rocks and boulders in the ice were transported over the rock surface. Transport of fine-grained material within a glacier can smooth or polish the surface of rocks, leading to glacial polish. Glacial erratics are rounded boulders that were left by a melting glacier and are often seen perched precariously on exposed rock faces after glacial retreat. The most common name for glacial sediment is moraine. The term is of French origin, and it was coined by peasants to describe alluvial embankments and rims found near the margins of glaciers in the French Alps. Currently, the term is used more broadly, and is applied to a series of formations, all of which are composed of till.

Drumlins

till Drumlins are asymmetrical hills with aerodynamic profiles made mainly of till. Their heights vary from 15 to 50 meters and they can reach a kilometer in length. The tilted side of the hill looks toward the direction from which the ice advanced (stoss), while the longer slope follows the ice's direction of movement (lee). Drumlins are found in groups called drumlin fields or drumlin camps. An example of these fields is found east of Rochester, New York, and it is estimated that it contains about 10,000 drumlins. Although the process that forms drumlins is not fully understood, it can be inferred from their shape that they are products of the plastic deformation zone of ancient glaciers. It is believed that many drumlins were formed when glaciers advanced over and altered the deposits of earlier glaciers.

Glacial erosion

Rocks and sediments are added to glaciers through various processes. Glaciers erode the terrain principally through two methods: abrasion and plucking. plucking As the glacier flows over the bedrock's fractured surface, it softens and lifts blocks of rock that are brought into the ice. This process is known as plucking, and it is produced when subglacial water penetrates the fractures and the subsequent freezing expansion separates them from the bedrock. When the water expands, it acts as a lever that loosens the rock by lifting it. This way, sediments of all sizes become part of the glacier's load. Abrasion occurs when the ice and the load of rock fragments slide over the bedrock and function as sandpaper that smoothens and polishes the surface situated below. This pulverized rock is called rock flour. This flour is formed by rock grains of a size between 0.002 and 0.00625 mm. Sometimes the amount of rock flour produced is so high that currents of meltwaters acquire a grayish color. Another of the visible characteristics of glacial erosion are glacial striations. These are produced when the bottom's ice contains large chunks of rock that mark trenches in the bedrock. By mapping the direction of the flutes the direction of the glacier's movement can be determined. The velocity of a glacier's erosion is variable. The differential erosion undertaken by the ice is controlled by four important factors:
- Velocity of glacial movement
- Thickness of the ice
- Shape, abundance and hardness of rock fragments contained in the ice at the bottom of the glacier
- Relative ease of erosion of the surface under the glacier. Material that becomes incorporated in a glacier are typically carried as far as the zone of ablation before being deposited. Glacial deposits are of two distinct types:
- Glacial till: material directly deposited from glacial ice. Till includes a mixture of undifferentiated material ranging from clay size to boulders, the usual composition of a moraine.
- Fluvial and outwash: sediments deposited by water. These deposits are stratified through various processes, such as boulders being separated from finer particles. The larger pieces of rock which are encrusted in till or deposited on the surface are called glacial erratics. They may range in size from pebbles to boulders, but as they may be moved great distances they may be of drastically different type than the material upon which they are found. Patterns of glacial erratics provide clues of past glacial motions.

Glacial valleys

glacial erratics glacial erratics. Glacial lakes have been rapidly forming on the surface of the debris-covered glaciers in this region during the last few decades.]] Before glaciation, mountain valleys have a characteristic "V" shape, produced by downward erosion by water. However, during glaciation, these valleys widen and deepen, which creates a "U"-shaped glacial valley. Besides the deepening and widening of the valley, the glacier also smoothes the valley due to erosion. This way, it eliminates the spurs of earth that extend across the valley. Because of this interaction, triangular cliffs called truncated spurs are formed. Many glaciers deepen their valleys more than their smaller tributaries. Therefore, when the glaciers stop receding, the valleys of the tributary glaciers remain above the main glacier's depression, and these are called hanging valleys. In parts of the soil that were affected by abrasion and plucking, the depressions left can be filled by paternoster lakes, from the Latin for "Our Father", referring to a station of the rosary. At the head of a glacier is the corrie, which has a bowl shape with escarped walls on three sides, but open on the side that descends into the valley. In the corrie, an accumulation of ice is formed. These begin as irregularities on the side of the mountain, which are later augmented in size by the coining of the ice. After the glacier melts, these corries are usually occupied by small mountain lakes called tarns. There may be two glaciers separated by a diving ridge. This, located between the corries, is eroded to create an arête. This structure may result in a mountain pass. Glaciers are also responsible for the creation of fjords (deep coves or inlets) and escarpments that are found at high latitudes. With depths that can exceed 1,000 metres caused by the postglacial elevation of sea level and therefore, as it changed the glaciers changed their level of erosion. sea level

Arêtes and horns

An arête is a narrow crest with a sharp edge. Pointed pyramidal peaks are called horns. Both features may have the same process behind their formation: the enlargement of cirques from glacial plucking and the action of the ice. Horns are formed by cirques that encircle a single mountain. Arêtes emerge in a similar manner; the only difference is that the cirques are not located in a circle, but rather on opposite sides along a divide. Arêtes can also be produced by the collision of two parallel glaciers. In this case, the glacial tongues cut the divides down to size through erosion, and polish the adjacent valleys.

Sheepback rock

Some rock formations in the path of a glacier are sculpted into small hills with a shape known as roche moutonnée or sheepback. An elongated, rounded, asymmetrical, bedrock knob produced can be produced by glacier erosion. It has a gentle slope on its up-glacier side and a steep to vertical face on the down-glacier side. The glacier abrades the smooth slope that it flows along, while rock is torn loose from the downstream side and carried away in ice. Rock on this side is fractured by combinations of forces due to water, ice in rock cracks, and structural stresses.

Alluvial stratification

The water that rises from the zone of ablation moves away from the glacier and carries with it fine eroded sediments. As the speed of the water decreases, so does its capacity to carry objects in suspension. The water then gradually deposits the sediment as it runs, creating an alluvial plain. When this phenomenon occurs in a valley, it is called a valley train. alluvial plain Alluvial plains and valley trains are usually accompanied by basins known as kettles. Glacial depressions are also produced in till deposits. These depressions are formed when large ice blocks are stuck in the glacial alluvium and after melting, they leave holes in the sediment. Generally, the diameter of these depressions does not exceed 2 km, except in Minnesota, where some depressions reach up to 50 km in diameter, with depths varying between 10 and 50 meters.

Deposits in contact with ice

When a glacier reduces in size to a critical point, its flow stops, and the ice becomes stationary. Meanwhile, meltwater flows over, within, and beneath the ice leave stratified alluvial deposits. Because of this, as the ice melts, it leaves stratified deposits in the form of columns, terraces and clusters. These types of deposits are known as deposits in contact with ice. When those deposits take the form of columns of tipped sides or mounds, which are called kames. Some kames form when meltwater deposits sediments through openings in the interior of the ice. In other cases, they are just the result of fans or deltas towards the exterior of the ice produced by meltwater. When the glacial ice occupies a valley it can form terraces or kame along the sides of the valley. A third type of deposit formed in contact with the ice is characterized by long, narrow sinuous crests composed fundamentally of sand and gravel deposite by streams of meltwater flowing within, beneath or on the glacier ice. After the ice has melted these linear ridges or eskers remain as landscape features. Some of these crests have heights exceeding 100 meters and their lengths surpass 100 km.

Loess deposits

Very fine glacial sediments or rock flour is often picked up by wind blowing over the bare surface and may be deposited great distances from the original fluvial deposition site. These eolian loess deposits may be very deep, even hundreds of meters, as in areas of China and the midwestern United States.

Isostatic rebound

loess This rise of a part of the crust is due to an isostatic adjustment. A large mass, such as a glacier, depresses the Earth's crust. After the glacier melts, the crust begins to rise to its original position. This is post-glacial rebound and is currently occurring in measurable amounts in Scandinavia and the Great Lakes region of the United States.

Ice ages

:Main article: Ice age.

Ice age divisions

A quadruple division of the Quaternary glacial period has been established for North America and Europe. These divisions are based principally on the study of glacial deposits. In North America, each of these four stages was named for the state in which the deposits of these stages were well exposed. In order of appearance, they are the following: Nebraskan, Kansan, Illinoisan, and Wisconsinan. This classification was refined thanks to the detailed study of the sediments of the ocean floor. Because the sediments of the ocean floor, in contrast to that of the Earth's surface, are less affected by stratigraphic discontinuities, they are useful to determine the climatic cycles of the planet. In this matter, geologists have come to identify over twenty divisions, each of them lasting approximately 100,000 years. All these cycles fall within the Quaternary glacial period. During its peak, the ice left its mark over almost 30% of Earth's surface, covering approximately 10 million km² in North America, 5 million km² in Europe and 4 million km² in Siberia. The glacial ice in the Northern hemisphere was double that found in the Southern hemisphere. This is because in the South Pole the ice cannot advance beyond the Antarctic landmass. It is now believed that the most recent glacial period began between two and three million years ago, in the Pleistocene era.

Causes of ice ages

Little is known about the causes of glaciations. Generalized glaciations have been rare in the history of Earth. However, the Ice Age of the Pleistocene was not the only glaciative event, since tillite deposits have been identified. Tillite is a sedimentary rock formed when glacial till is lithified. These deposits found in strata of differing age present similar characteristics as fragments of fluted rock, and some are superposed over bedrock surfaces of channeled and polished rock or associated with sandstone and conglomerates that have features of alluvial plain deposits. Two Precambrian glacial episodes have been identified, the first approximately 2 billion years ago, and the second (Snowball Earth) about 600 million years. Also, a well documented record of glaciation exists in rocks of the late Paleozoic (of 250 million years of age). Although there are several scientific hypotheses about the determining factors of glaciations, the two most important ideas are plate tectonics and variations in Earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles).

Plate tectonics

Because glaciers can form only on dry land, plate tectonics suggest that the evidence of previous glaciations is currently present in tropical latitudes due to the drift of tectonic plates from tropical latitudes to circumpolar regions. Evidence of glacial structures in South America, Africa, Australia, and India support this idea, because it is known that they experienced a glacial period near the end of the Paleozoic Era, some 250 million years ago. The idea that the evidence of middle-latitude glaciations is closely related to the displacement of tectonic plates was confirmed by the absence of glacial traces in the same period for the higher latitudes of North America and Eurasia, which indicates that their locations were very different than today. Climatic changes are also related to the positions of the continents, which has made them vary in conjunction with the displacement of plates. That also affected ocean current patterns, which caused changes in heat transmission and humidity. Since continents drift very slowly (about 2 cm per year), similar changes occur in periods of millions of years. A study of marine sediment that contained climatically sensitive microorganisms until about half a million years ago were compared with studies of the geometry of Earth's orbit, and the result was clear: climatic changes are closely related to periods of obliquity, precession, and eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. In general it can be affirmed that plate tectonics is only applicable to very long periods of time, while Milankovitch's proposal, backed up by the work of others, adjusts to the periodic alterations of glacial periods of the Pleistocene. These proposals are subject to uncertainty and there may be other factors involved.

References

- This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of July 24, 2005.
- Michael Hambrey and Jürg Alean, Glaciers, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-82808-2) An excellent less-technical treatment of all aspects, with superb photographs and firsthand accounts of glaciologists' experiences. All images of this book can be found online (see Weblinks: Glaciers-online)
- Douglas I. Benn and David J. A. Evans, Glaciers and Glaciation (Arnold, 1999)
- M. R. Bennett and N. F. Glasser, Glacial Geology: Ice Sheets and Landforms (John Wiley & Sons, 1996)
- Michael Hambrey, Glacial Environments (University of British Columbia Press, UCL Press, 1994) An undergraduate-level textbook.
- Robert Walley, Introduction to Physical Geography (Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1992) A textbook devoted to explaining the geography of our planet.
- W. S. B. Paterson, Physics of Glaciers, 3rd ed. (Pergamon Press, 1994) A comprehensive reference on the physical principles underlying formation and behavior.

External links

- [http://www.glaciers-online.net/ Swisseduc - Glaciers online]
- [http://www.nsidc.org/glaciers/ National Snow and Ice Data Center - Glaciers]
- [http://www.glaciers.er.usgs.gov/ USGS Glacier Studies Project]
- [http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Glaciers/description_glaciers_hazards.html Glaciers and Glacial Hazards - USGS]
- [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030814071654.htm 2003-08-15 Scientists Rewrite Laws Of Glacial Erosion]
- [http://www.nps.gov/kefj#Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/03.html NOVA scienceNOW] - A 7 minute video of the NOVA broadcast that aired on PBS, July 26, 2005. Hosted by Robert Krulwich, the video is about the world's fastest glacier and why it is moving too fast. Category:Glaciology Category:Bodies of ice Category:Glaciers ja:氷河

Isthmus

An isthmus (from Greek ισθμός, isthmos; plural isthmuses or isthmi; pronounced ) is a narrow strip of land that is bordered on two sides by water and connects two larger land masses. It is the inverse of a strait (which lies between two land masses and connects two larger bodies of water). Isthmuses are a naturally good place to build canals. The Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, drastically reduces the naval travel time between the east and west coasts of the Americas. The Suez Canal is another example - it allows ship transportation between Europe and Asia without the circumnavigation of Africa.

List of isthmuses

- the Isthmus of Panama - the most famous isthmus. Connects North America and South America.
- the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece - the first isthmus to bear that name
- the Isthmus of Dubrovnik - today's Stradun, (main center street), which connected Laus and Dub into a single city unit
- the Isthmus of Suez - the isthmus between North Africa and Southwest Asia, in Egypt where the Suez Canal is located
- the Isthmus of Kra, which joins the Malay Peninsula with mainland Asia
- the Isthmus of Avalon in Canada - separates the main island of Newfoundland from the Avalon Peninsula (where the capital, St. John's, is located)
- the Isthmus of Chignecto - connects the mainland portion of Nova Scotia with North America
- the Isthmus of Tehuantepec - connects Yucatan and Central America with the rest of Mexico
- the Isthmus of Perekop between Crimea and Ukraine proper
- the Karelian Isthmus between Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga
- the Madison Isthmus, between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin

Norwegian

As an adjective Norwegian refers to something originating from Norway. As a noun it may have several meanings:
- The Norwegian language, a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway.
- One or both of the two official written forms of the Norwegian language:
- Bokmål.
- Nynorsk.
- A Norwegian, a member of the dominant ethnic group of Norway.
- The Norwegian Air Shuttle, a Low-cost airline.
- A rugged type of insulated food container designed for mass catering out of doors, as used by the British Army, and known as "Norwegian Containers", popularly abbreviated to "Norwegian".
- A pullover type of thermal shirt with a distinctive roll neck, as used by the British Army, and known as a "Norwegian Shirt", popularly abbreviated to "Norwegian". But to Norwegians this is known as an Icelander

Natural resources

Natural resources are naturally occuring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E.F. Schumacher in his 1970s book Small Is Beautiful. Natural resources are often classified into renewable and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are generally living resources (fish, coffee, and forests, for example), which can restock (renew) themselves at approximately the rate at which they are extracted, if they are not overharvested. Non-living renewable natural resources include soil, as well as water, wind, tides and solar radiation — compare with renewable energy. Mineral resources are generally non-renewable and, once a site's non-renewable resource is exhausted, it is considered to be useless for future extraction, barring technological improvements that allow economic extraction from the tailings. Both extraction of the basic resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g., metals, refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even though the latter may not necessarily occur near the former. Natural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes. They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and other goods taken more or less as they are from the Earth. A nation's natural resources often determine its wealth and status in the world economic system, by determining its political influence. Developed nations are those which are less dependent on natural resources for wealth, due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production. However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural resources could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption. resource curse] In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to sustainable development have been a major focus of development agencies. This is of particular concern in rainforest regions, which hold most of the Earth's natural biodiversity - irreplaceable genetic natural capital. Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of Natural Capitalism, environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.

External links

- [http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/statistics/factsheet.htm Statistics on Natural Resources in Canada] Category:Ecology
- uralne]] simple:Natural resource