Which ocean is the smallest and shallowest of Earth’s five recognized oceans?

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of Earth’s five recognized oceans.

It surrounds the North Pole and is almost completely enclosed by Eurasia and North America. The ocean is connected to the Pacific through the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic through passages around Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its boundaries and area estimates can vary slightly depending on the geographic convention used, but it is consistently ranked fifth in size.

Seasonal sea ice is one of the Arctic Ocean’s defining features. Ice coverage expands during the dark winter and retreats during the summer, although the long-term trend has been a substantial decline in summer sea ice. The ocean also contains broad continental shelves, which make its average depth much lower than that of the other major oceans.

The Arctic Ocean supports organisms adapted to extreme cold, including polar bears, walruses, seals, and ice-associated microorganisms. It is surrounded by eight Arctic states: Canada, Denmark through Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The region is central to climate research because it is warming faster than the global average.