NewsTracker Answers for week of Aug. 31, 2020

Q: The Russian navy conducted major war games last week in the Bering Sea near Alaska. It was the biggest such drills in the area since the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago. Where is the Bering Sea?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Russian navy officials said the drills were part of the nation’s military build-up to protect its claims in the Arctic, which is believed to hold up to one-quarter of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas. Besides Russia and the United States, what other nation has claims to the Arctic?

A. Canada

B. Denmark

C. Norway

D. All of the above

D. Russia claims the largest area of the Arctic, but Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Norway, Iceland and the United States also claim resources there. Parts of Finland and Sweden are in the Arctic, and they demand to help decide environmental and economic issues in the region.

Q: The Bering Sea is part of which ocean?

A. Arctic

B. Atlantic

C. Pacific

D. Southern

C. The Bering Sea is the northern-most part of the Pacific Ocean, the largest of the world’s five oceans. It is separated from the Arctic Ocean by the Bering Strait between Asia and North America. The Arctic is the smallest ocean behind the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Southern.

Q: The Bering Sea and Bering Strait are named after a navigator born in which country?

A. Canada

B. Denmark

C. Norway

D. Russia

B. Vitus Bering was a seaman born in Denmark who joined the Russian Navy of Peter the Great in 1704. Beginning in 1725, he led expeditions for tsar to explore and map the waters between Asia and North America. He died there in1741 after being shipwrecked on an island also later named for him.

Q: Climate change is melting more ice in Arctic and sparked the push to exploit the region’s natural resources. The latest climate models say Arctic Ocean could be free of ice as soon as the summer of ...

A. 2035

B. 2060

C. 2080

D. 2100

A. "The prospect of loss of (summer) sea ice by 2035 should really be focusing all our minds on achieving a low-carbon world as soon as humanly feasible," said British palaeoclimate modeler Louise Sime. Arctic ice is at its maximum in March and its minimum in September.