The smallest of the world's five oceans is the:

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceans, covering about 14 to 15.5 million square km, which is only about 4 percent of the total area of the world's oceans.

Location:

• It lies around the North Pole, mostly north of the Arctic Circle.
• It is almost completely surrounded by the landmasses of North America, Europe and Asia (Russia, Canada, Alaska of the USA, Greenland, Norway and Iceland).

Features of the Arctic Ocean:

• It has an average depth of about 1,000 to 1,200 metres, the shallowest of all oceans.
• Much of its surface is covered by sea ice for most of the year.
• It has the lowest salinity of the five oceans, because of low evaporation, melting ice and fresh water from large rivers such as the Ob, Yenisei, Lena and Mackenzie.

Arctic sea ice and climate change:

• The Arctic is warming about three to four times faster than the global average.
• The extent of summer sea ice has decreased sharply since satellite records began in 1979.
• Scientists expect the Arctic Ocean to be almost ice-free in some summers in the coming decades.
• Melting ice opens new shipping routes, such as the Northern Sea Route along Russia's coast and the Northwest Passage through Canada's islands.

India and the Arctic:

• India set up its first Arctic research station, Himadri, at Ny-Alesund in Svalbard (Norway) in 2008.
• India became an observer in the Arctic Council in 2013 and released its Arctic Policy in 2022.

The five oceans in order of size:

• Pacific (largest), Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic (smallest).
• The Southern Ocean around Antarctica was recognised as a separate ocean by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000, and by National Geographic in 2021.

Why not the other options?

• ✗The Indian Ocean is the third largest.
• ✗The Southern Ocean is the fourth largest.
• ✗The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest.