Return to Article The Northwest Passage Possible routes through the Northwest Passage. Spitsbergen Portion of 1599 map of Arctic exploration by Willem Barentsz. Spitsbergen, here mapped for the first time, is indicated as "Het Nieuwe Land" (Dutch for "the New Land"), center-left. Circumpolar Communities Circumpolar coastal human population distribution ca. 2009. Arctic Ice This image shows the extent of Arctic sea ice on August 26, 2012, the day the sea ice dipped to its smallest extent ever recorded in more than three decades of satellite measurements, according to scientists from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Return to top
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