Arctic Ocean Section The First Major Scientific Crossing of the Arctic Ocean 1994 Arctic Ocean Section — Historic Firsts — • First U.S. and Canadian surface ships to reach the North Pole

• First circumnavigation of North America and Greenland by surface ships • Northernmost rendezvous of three surface ships from the largest Arctic nations—Russia, the U.S. and Canada—at 89°41′N, 011°24′E on August 23, 1994 — Significant Scientific Findings — • Uncharted seamount discovered near 85°50′N, 166°00′E • Atlantic layer of the Arctic Ocean found to be 0.5–1°C warmer than prior to 1993 • Large eddy of cold fresh shelf water found centered at 1000 m on the periphery of the Makarov Basin • Sediment observed on the ice from the Chukchi Sea to the North Pole • Biological productivity estimated to be ten times greater than previous estimates • Active microbial community found, indicating that bacteria and protists are significant consumers of plant production • Mesozooplankton biomass found to increase with latitude • Benthic macrofauna found to be abundant, with populations higher in the Amerasia Basin than in the Eurasian Basi