Author Topic: Canada launches mission to map Arctic seabed  (Read 358 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline EC

  • Shanghaied Editor
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23,804
  • Gender: Male
  • Cats rule. Dogs drool.
Canada launches mission to map Arctic seabed
« on: August 09, 2014, 11:18:42 pm »
Canada has launched a mission to map the Arctic seabed to support its bid to extend its territory up to the North Pole.

The six-week mission comes in the face of competing claims from other countries, including Russia.

Two ice-breakers are setting out from Newfoundland to collect data from an undersea ridge that starts near Ellesmere Island and runs to the Pole.

The region is believed to include large oil and gas reserves.

Last December Canada filed an application with the UN seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary.

Russia and Denmark have also made competing claims on a vast area of Arctic seabed around the Lomonosov Ridge.
Arctic claims

All three countries are seeking scientific proof that the ridge is an underwater extension of their continental shelf.

The area is estimated to hold 13% of the world's undiscovered oil and up to 30% of its hidden natural gas reserves.

A Canadian government statement said the first icebreaker had left St John's, Newfoundland, on Friday and the second would depart on Saturday.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28718806
The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Avatar courtesy of Oceander

I've got a website now: Smoke and Ink