Thorough, multidisciplinary account of the physical environment of this ocean area which includes the Greenland, Barents and Norwegian seas. Includes chapters on climatology; ice cover; the physical properties of the sea ice cover; brief overview of the physical oceanography; the arctic waters; the sound-speed structure; features of fjord and ocean interaction; tide, bathymetry; seafloor topography, sediments and paleoenvironments; geophysical and geochemical signatures and plate tectonics.