Battle for the 'Russian' Arctic heating up.

Battle for the 'Russian' Arctic heating up. (RBTH).

Russian scientists say their new model for the Arctic's tectonic evolution shows that the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges are part of the Eurasian mainland. 

This apparently substantiates Russia's claim to 1.2 million square kilometers of Arctic sea shelf. At stake is control over vast natural resources, and opposition from western nations is almost certain.

Scientists from the Shirshov Oceanology Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a new model for the Arctic's tectonic evolution that could help Russia — as well as several other countries — to support their territorial claims in the region.

The model proves that both the Mendeleev and the Lomonosov underwater ridges in the Arctic Ocean are in fact extensions of the Russian shelf, while the North Pole belongs to Denmark. 

Earlier this month Russia submitted its latest claims over the vast Arctic area to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. If these are deemed valid, then access to significant parts of the Arctic could be off-limits to other nations.

The Arctic explained

The scientists claim their model is the most accurate to date since it was the first one to describe the actual tectonic plate movements in the Arctic and explain the origin of the basic tectonic structures of its seabed. The scientists say their model represents a huge step forward, paving the way to a completely new field of research --- the study and reconstruction of the mechanism behind the movement of the Arctic crustal blocks.

The Russian scientific data could also support shelf extension claims made by other countries, with some of them potentially extending their borders all the way to the North Pole. “Our colleagues from Norway, Canada, the United States and Denmark are quite interested in the model and are studying it with enthusiasm,” Leopold Lobkovsky, deputy director of the Shirshov Institute, told RBTH.

“We know now that the Gakkel Ridge, which Russia had previously claimed as well, is not an extension of the country’s shelf, but merely a part of the seabed,'' said Yuri Sychev, head of the Zubkov State Institute of Oceanography. “The North Pole – according to the equi-distance principle – should belong to Denmark, but this issue is still a subject of discussion between Copenhagen, Ottawa and Moscow. As for the Lomonosov and the Mendeleev Ridges, these are undoubtedly part of the Russian shelf.” 

The researchers have gathered unique cartographical and geophysical data that they expect will satisfy the UN commission. Russian scientific data shows that the ridges started moving away from the Eurasian continent 120 million years ago, but have never broken off from it.

A decade of research

Russia submitted a similar territorial claim in 2001, but it was rejected because it failed to provide convincing evidence. Establishing the new model took over 10 years of geological and geophysical studies and large-scale marine expeditions involving ice-breakers and scientific research ships. During one such expedition, drilling rigs deployed near the Mendeleev Ridge reached rock formations that could date back to almost 300 million years ago.   

“At the moment, the Arctic Ocean beyond the exclusive economic zone is open to ships from all states”, said Lobkovsky. “If the Russian claim is approved by the UN Commission, then a large part of the Arctic will no longer be considered international waters.''

Professor Vladimir Pavlenko, head of Russia’s Arctic Research Institute, believes the UN will approve Russia’s claims this time. “The rejection of the 2001 claim made sense; we had almost no accurate data at that point,'' said Pavlenko. “It was hard to expect any other outcome, but now we have every reason to expect an approval.”

Despite the new evidence, however, Russia's claim will continue to meet strong opposition from other countries, such as the USA and Canada, because at stake is a very resource-rich area of the Arctic.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said the U.S. and its allies should stand up to Russia. “Russia has been aggressively pushing its claims to the Arctic, especially the resource-rich continental shelf. It now has an Arctic Command to strengthen its military presence in the region. The U.S. and others bordering the Arctic must maintain a united front against Moscow’s aggressive ambitions toward this vital region,” said Royce.  

The Arctic Future: Confrontation or collaboration?

The Arctic: Confrontation or collaboration? – Russia Direct.

The Arctic conference in Moscow, “The Arctic: Region of Development and Cooperation”, which was organized by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) on Dec. 2-3, brought together politicians, diplomats, academics, businessmen and environmentalists from the U.S., Russia, Canada and Europe.

Since the conference presented a unique opportunity to address common challenges in the Arctic and foster cooperation between countries, the organizers of the conference as well as most of the participants were optimistic about the future of the Arctic.

Arctic resources: Any competitors in sight for Russia?

“The Arctic region is a laboratory of new models for international collaboration that can be applied in other [less stable] regions,” said Andrey V. Kortunov, President of the New Eurasia Foundation and the General Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).
Artur Chilingarov, the Russian President’s Special Envoy for International Cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic, doesn’t see any reason for future confrontation in the Arctic.  A large number of conferences dedicated to the Arctic indicate that there is growing interest in bringing stability to the region and more cooperation, according to him. 
The Arctic conference in Moscow indicates that there are a lot of unresolved issues that “we need to negotiate,” Chilingarov told Russia Direct.
David Balton, Ambassador for Oceans and Fisheries at the U.S. Department of State, echoes his Russian counterparts.
“I see the United States and Russia as continuing to collaborate in the Arctic for the foreseeable future because the interests of both of our nations overlap very significantly: We both want a stable and peaceful Arctic that can develop and also where we can protect the environment. So, there are no major policy differences between the U.S. and Russia or the other Arctic states.”
The militarization of the Arctic: myth or reality?Read the full story here.

Canada to file Arctic seafloor claim this week.

Canada to file Arctic seafloor claim this week.(CP24).

Some time this week, Canada is expected to make its case to the world to dramatically expand its boundaries by an area equivalent to the size of all three Prairie provinces.

Canada's deadline is Friday to apply to a United Nations commission for exclusive rights to what is likely to be another 1.7 million square kilometres of Arctic seafloor. The application under the Convention on the Law of the Sea will be the culmination of a decade of work and more than $200 million in public money.

The lines on the map will have been drawn by scores of scientists working everywhere from Ottawa labs to ice camps off the northern shores of Ellesmere Island, peering under the stormy black waters to discern the shape and composition of sea floor thousands of metres below.

The effort required more than a dozen icebreaker voyages, as well as trips by helicopters, airplanes and an unmanned, remote-controlled submarine that spent days under the ice.

With the co-operation of three Arctic neighbours -- Denmark, Russia and the United States -- more than 18,000 kilometres of sea-floor data was collected from a part of the globe less familiar than the surface of the moon.

"It was a huge effort and enormously challenging," said Michael Byers, an expert on Arctic and international law at the University of British Columbia.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea governs which nations exert what kinds of controls over their surrounding waters. In addition to the 22-kilometre territorial waters and the 370-kilometre exclusive economic zones, coastal countries are allowed to claim additional sea floor if they can show their continental shelf extends beyond the economic zone. Canada has previously released maps on the likely boundaries of its claim. Russia filed its claim in 2002 and Denmark released its last week.

The U.S. has not signed the convention, but has agreed to follow most of its articles. Its boundary dispute with Canada involves the exclusive economic zone and doesn't directly impact Friday's claim.

Conflicts are likely to be few. One calculation puts the amount of overlap between claims at a mere 75,000 square kilometres out of millions and millions.

Rob Huebert, an Arctic expert at the University of Calgary, will be watching to see if Canada stretches its claim past the North Pole. The geologic justification -- an undersea mountain range called the Lomonosov Ridge that stretches north from Ellesmere Island -- is there, he said.

"I don't think there's something magical that stops (the claim) at the North Pole," he said.

Canadian officials have acknowledged mapping flights over the top of the world and into Russia's claim, which does stop at the pole. But Byers said there's no evidence that Canada has collected the kind of data it would need to challenge Russia. Read the full story here.