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Northern Sea Route Partly Blocked Although Sea Ice Near Minimum

So far this year only the southern passage has opened despite record low levels of Arctic sea ice. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the current extent is 760,000 square kilometers (293,000 square miles) below the previous record minimum extent in the satellite record (4.17 million square kilometers or 1.61 million square miles) which occurred on September 18, 2007. This difference is larger than the size of the state of Texas.