The Cold Northern Seas, From the Greenland Sea to the Bay of Fundy

The Greenland Sea covers about 1,205,000 square kilometers and reaches 4,846 meters deep. It is where warm and cold water masses meet and where deep water forms that feeds the global ocean circulation, so the path begins at one of the places that drive the ocean itself.

The Kara Sea covers about 926,000 square kilometers and is roughly 1,450 kilometers long, with a greatest depth near 620 meters. It lies off northern Russia behind the islands of Novaya Zemlya, is ice-covered most of the year, and receives the outflow of the Ob and the Yenisei.

The Chukchi Sea covers about 620,000 square kilometers between Siberia and Alaska and is as deep as 1,256 meters. It connects to the Bering Sea through the Bering Strait, and its ice-covered waters support walrus, seals and whales.

The Beaufort Sea covers about 476,000 square kilometers north of Alaska and the Canadian north, and its deepest point is 4,683 meters, far deeper than the Chukchi to its west. It is named for the British hydrographer Francis Beaufort and is a focus of Arctic sea ice research.

Baffin Bay covers about 689,000 square kilometers between Greenland and Baffin Island and reaches 2,136 meters deep. It joins the Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean through Davis Strait and Nares Strait, and it is a habitat for narwhal, beluga and polar bear.

Davis Strait is the southern door of Baffin Bay, lying between Baffin Island and Greenland and leading to the Labrador Sea. It is named for the English explorer John Davis and is a corridor for whales, seals and other Arctic marine life.

Hudson Bay covers about 1,230,000 square kilometers in northeastern Canada, yet its greatest depth is only 270 meters, shallow for a sea of its size. Named for Henry Hudson and reached from the Atlantic through Hudson Strait, it was for centuries the commercial heart of the fur trade of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence covers about 226,000 square kilometers and is up to 530 meters deep. It is where the Saint Lawrence River meets the ocean, bounded by Newfoundland, the Maritime provinces and Quebec, and it carries shipping from the Great Lakes to the open Atlantic.

The Bay of Fundy, about 151 kilometers long between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, closes the path with the highest tidal range recorded anywhere, more than 16 meters at its head. Its funnel shape resonates with the rhythm of the incoming Atlantic tide.