The Marvelous Landscapes of the Arctic World [antikvár]

Introduction 14 top left A Russian nuclear icebreaker sails through the Arctic Ocean, with bits of icebergs and fragments of pack-ice floating around it. There is a storm brewing in the sky, common during the summer. 14 top right During the summer; water-laden clouds hang heavily over the sea, where fragments of pack-ice continue to appear. Unless blown away by a strong wind, the clouds will soon release their moisture in the form of snow, hail or rain. The Arctic regions form a different environment, well recognizable among the other lands on the planet. Anyone who has been on really high mountains will have an approximate idea: cold, ice and sparse vegetation are characteristics of both these environments. But there the analogy ends. What distinguishes the Arctic is its colossal size and the sea, a half-frozen ocean that extends for more than 10 million square miles, surrounded by the desolate tundra of Eurasia and North America, which covers fully 3 million square miles, one tenth of the Earth's surface. The Arctic's distinguishing characteristics can be briefly summarized as follows: 1) high latitudes; 2) long winters and short, cool summers; 3) low precipitation; 4) permafrost; 5) frozen lakes and seas; 6) the absence of trees (a plant is conventionally defined as a tree when its trunk emerges from the snow cover). It is not easy to establish the boundaries of Arctic regions. If we consider one of the above criteria, the Arctic could be defined as the land above the Arctic Circle, the parallel of latitude at 66° 33' 03" north, which borders the territories where the sun never sets for at least one day in the summer. This boundary, however, is not absolute as, due to refraction phenomena caused by the density of air on the horizon, the sun may appear at midnight even a couple of degrees below this latitude. In any event, if we use the Arctic Circle as a reference, several anomalies immediately appear to undermine its validity. The most glaring example is Hudson Bay, which freezes over completely in winter (and is home to numerous polar bears and seals), yet its southern tip is at a latitude of 55° north, whereas the Norwegian coast at sea level at a latitude of 71° north is certainly not considered Arctic, due to the important influence of the Gulf Stream. 14-15 In northern Norway, Atlantic currents often meet with cold air from the north. The photo shows Djupvik, on the road from Tromso to North Cape. Here, where the first snowstorms arrive in early autumn, storms have already covered the region with snow down to sea level. 15 top In the Denmark Strait, an arm of the sea between Greenland and Iceland, the sun hangs low on the horizon and the cumulus clouds in the sky over the tranquil water forecast good weather. 15 bottom Sailing across the Arctic Ocean, the Russian icebreaker Nuke finds the sea open, although the sky is filled with storm clouds. 15