Nearly twenty-five years before, Captain John Davis had noted, as he sailed near the Arctic Circle, `` a very great gulf, the water whirling and roaring, as it were the meeting of tides ''.

World map showing the Arctic Circle in red.

Map of the Arctic with the Arctic Circle in blue.

The Arctic Circle marks the southern extremity of the polar day ( 24-hour sunlit day, often referred to as the midnight sun ) and polar night ( 24-hour sunless night ).

North of the Arctic Circle, the sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year ( and therefore visible at midnight ) and below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year.

On the Arctic Circle those events occur, in principle, exactly once per year, at the June and December solstices, respectively.

In fact, because of atmospheric refraction and because the sun appears as a disk and not a point, part of the midnight sun may be seen on the night of the northern summer solstice up to about 50 ′ () south of the Arctic Circle ; similarly, on the day of the northern winter solstice, part of the sun may be seen up to about 50 ′ north of the Arctic Circle.

The position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed, but directly depends on the Earth's axial tilt, which fluctuates within a margin of 2 ° over a 40, 000 year period, notably due to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the Moon.

The Arctic Circle is currently drifting northwards at a speed of about per year ; see Circle of latitude for more information.

Relatively few people live north of the Arctic Circle due to the Arctic climate.

The three largest communities above the Arctic Circle are situated in Russia: Murmansk ( population 325, 100 ), Norilsk ( 135, 000 ), and Vorkuta ( 85, 000 ).

Rovaniemi ( in Finland ), which lies slightly south of the line, has a population of approximately 58, 000, and is the largest settlement in the immediate vicinity of the Arctic Circle.

The Arctic Circle passes through the Arctic Ocean, the Scandinavian Peninsula, North Asia, Northern America and Greenland.

The land on the Arctic Circle is divided among eight countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the United States ( Alaska ), Canada, Denmark ( Greenland ), and Iceland ( where it passes through the small offshore island of Grímsey ).

Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the Arctic Circle passes through:

The interior of Alaska is largely underlined by discontinuous permafrost, which grades to continuous permafrost as the Arctic Circle is approached.

Through Arctic Circle, University of Connecticut.

Second, they believed it important to determine the fate of the captain -- a man whose name is permanently stamped on our maps, on American towns and counties, on a great American river, and on half a million square miles of Arctic seas.

It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.

As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean ( which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic ), to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south.

The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic, and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone.

Land which is unsuitable for arable farming usually has at least one of the following deficiencies: no source of fresh water ; too hot ( desert ); too cold ( Arctic ); too rocky ; too mountainous ; too salty ; too rainy ; too snowy ; too polluted ; or too nutrient poor.

The arctic fox ( Vulpes lagopus, formerly known as Alopex lagopus ), also known as the white fox, polar fox or snow fox, is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome.

The arctic fox has a circumpolar range, meaning that it is found throughout the entire Arctic, including the outer edges of Greenland, Russia, Canada, Alaska, and Svalbard, as well as in Subarctic and alpine areas, such as Iceland and mainland alpine Scandinavia.

The Antarctic ( or ) is a polar region, specifically the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole.

The gleaming expanse of ice is similar to the Arctic, with wind-driven pack ice and ridges up to 15 m. Offshore of the landfast ice, the ice remains very dynamic all year, and it is relatively easily moved around by winds and therefore forms pack ice, made up of large piles and ridges pushed against the landfast ice and shores.

It is believed that melting Arctic ice will cause sea levels to rise and flood costal areas.

When South America became attached to North America creating the Isthmus of Panama, the Arctic region cooled due to the strengthening of the Humboldt and Gulf Stream currents, eventually leading to the glaciations of the Pleistocene ice age, the current interglacial of which is the Holocene Epoch.

The late author Sheldon H. Harris in his book " Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American cover up " wrote that, The test program, could be part of Project AGILE or Project OCONUS which began in fall 1962 and which was funded at least through fiscal year 1963, was considered by the Chemical Corps to be “ an ambitious one .” The tests were designed to cover “ not only trials at sea, but Arctic and tropical environmental tests as well .” The tests, presumably, were conducted at what research officers designated, but did not name, “ satellite sites .” These sites were located both in the continental United States and in foreign countries.

* The nation itself is the second northernmost country in Europe after Iceland, third place if one considers the Norwegian overseas-territory of Svalbard, an island in the Arctic Ocean, part of Europe.

Rachel White Scheuering writes that for one mission to launch a rocket, he sailed with a naval operation to the Arctic, and also conducted rocket launching from ships at the equator.

In 1825, Sir John Franklin wrote that " The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport " while on Great Bear Lake during one of his Arctic expeditions.

* Moor Island, one of the uninhabited Canadian Arctic Archipelago islands in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut

The various islands of the archipelago are separated from one another and the Canadian mainland by a series of Arctic waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passages or Northwestern Passages.

The duration of these phases varies from one day for locations right on the Arctic Circle to several months near the North Pole.

Josephie was one of the Inuit who were relocated in the 1950s to very difficult living conditions in Resolute and Grise Fiord, in the extreme North ( see High Arctic relocation ).

About one quarter of the Scandinavian Peninsula lies north of the Arctic Circle, its northernmost point being at Cape Nordkyn ( North Cape ), near the town of Hammerfest, Norway.

* HMS Discovery, one of the ships which took Captain George Nares ' British Arctic Expedition of 1875 – 1876 to the North Pole ; and

Vostrikov orders the K-19 to submerge to maximum operational depth ( 300 metres ), then surface rapidly at full-speed to break through the Arctic pack-ice which he estimates to be no more than one metre thick.

The idea of incentive conservation is a modern one but its practice has clearly defended some of the sub Arctic wildernesses and the wildlife in those regions for thousands of years, especially by indigenous peoples such as the Evenk, Yakut, Sami, Inuit and Cree.

Bylot Island, one of the more dramatic of the Arctic Islands, was named after him.

* Chemetco – this former copper smelter is cited in an academic study as one of the 10 highest ranking sources of dioxin pollution reaching Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic

The Arctic has extremely cold winters that rats cannot survive outdoors, and the human population density is extremely low, making it difficult for rats to travel from one habitation to another.

The Sayan Mountains ' towering peaks and cool lakes southwest of Tuva give rise to the tributaries that merge to become one of Siberia's major rivers, the Yenisei River, which flows north over 2000 miles to the Arctic Ocean.

It was known by the native peoples of the Arctic that the livers of carnivores should not be eaten, but Arctic explorers have suffered Hypervitaminosis A from eating the bear livers ( and there has been at least one example of similar poisoning of Antarctic explorers eating husky dog livers ).

The reverse side of the coin shows two explorers in Arctic gear ( one of them resembling von Payer ) with the frozen ship " Admiral Tegetthoff " behind them.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at one point features the narration of an Arctic explorer, who records the narration of Victor Frankenstein, who recounts the narration of his creation, who narrates the story of a cabin dwelling family he secretly observes.

Kotzebue's Ralph Wien Memorial Airport is the one airport in the Northwest Arctic Borough with regularly scheduled large commercial passenger aircraft service to and from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the Nome Airport.

* Vaygach Island, Arctic Circle, with one community of 100 inhabitants, Varnek, Russia