**1.Introduction**

The Arctic region is a keystone to understand the present status of the currently ongoing Earth system, such as the climate change, together with to predict future images of our planet as viewed from the northern high latitude. The Arctic region, composed by the ice-covered Arctic Ocean in its center and surrounding fragmentation of major continents, has been rapidly investigated during the last half century

#### **Figure 1.**

*Surface topography and bathymetry in the Arctic (ETOPO1, [6]) with major geographic location names treated in this review paper. Plate boundaries are after [7]. Red solid circle represents the "Arctic circle" (66.6°N). Abbreviations of representative local names are as follows: SV, Svalbard; MR, Mendeleev Ridge; HB, Hudson Bay; red solid triangles are the permanent stations; KMS, Kamenskoye Station; NAS, Ny-Alesund Station; ICE-S (south). (Original figure prepared for this InTech Book: Arctic Studies).*

by all kind of scientific studies including bioscience, physical sciences, geosciences, oceanography, and environmental studies, together with the technological domain. Major location names in the Arctic region are illustrated in **Figure 1**.
