Ironduke

Found this on CNN.com... let the race for the oil and gas begin:

Russia to sink flag to Arctic Sea floor in oil, land grab

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- An expedition aimed at strengthening Russia's claim to much of the oil and gas wealth beneath the Arctic Ocean reached the North Pole on Wednesday, and preparations immediately began for two mini-submarines to drop a capsule containing a Russian flag to the sea floor.

The Rossiya icebreaker had plowed a path to the pole through an unbroken sheet of multiyear ice, clearing the way for the Akademik Fedorov research ship to follow, said Sergei Balyasnikov, a spokesman for the Arctic and Antarctic research institute that prepared the expedition.

"For the first time in history people will go down to the sea bed under the North Pole," Balyasnikov told The Associated Press. "It's like putting a flag on the moon."

Russian scientists hope to dive in two mini-submarines beneath the pole to a depth of more than 13,200 feet, and drop a metal capsule containing the Russian flag on the sea bed.

Balyasnikov said the dive was expected to start Thursday morning and last for several hours.

The voyage, led by noted polar explorer and Russian legislator Artur Chilingarov, has some scientific goals, including the study of Arctic plants and animals. But its chief goal appears to be advancing Russia's political and economic influence by strengthening its legal claims to the gas and oil deposits thought to lie beneath the Arctic sea floor.

The symbolic gesture, along with geologic data being gathered by expedition scientists, is intended to prop up Moscow's claims to more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf -- which by some estimates may contain 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits.

The expedition reflects an intense rivalry between Russia, the United States, Canada and other nations whose shores face the northern polar ocean for the Arctic's icebound riches.

About 100 scientists aboard the Akademik Fyodorov are looking for evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge -- a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region -- is a geologic extension of Russia, and therefore can be claimed by it under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The subs will collect specimens of Arctic plants and animals and videotape the dives.

The biggest challenge, scientists say, will be for the mini-sub crews to return to their original point of departure to avoid being trapped under a thick ice crust.

"They have all the necessary navigation equipment to ensure safety," Balyasnikov said.

Denmark hopes to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the Danish territory of Greenland, not Russia. Canada, meanwhile, plans to spend $7 billion to build and operate up to eight Arctic patrol ships in a bid to help protect its sovereignty.

The U.S. Congress is considering an $8.7 billion budget reauthorization bill for the U.S. Coast Guard that includes $72.96 million to operate and maintain the nation's three existing polar icebreakers. The bill also authorizes the Coast Guard to construct two new vessels.

Russia to sink flag to Arctic Sea floor in oil, land grab - CNN.com

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The Buck Stops Here

dalem

Holy Cats but I'm sick of the gorram Russkies and their gorram inferiority-complex-driven craziness.

-dale

ArmchairGeneral

Don't worry. They'll eventually be bought out by the Chinese, and we'll ally with the Chinese Empire to conquer the stars.

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"Apocalyptic thought is curiously pleasurable."
-Theodore Dalrymple

Feanor

What if it turns out to be an extension of both, connecting the two underwater?

dalem

Shiny.

-dale

entropy

It's a scientific expedition. But yeah, the press loves giving everything a political color, and then you have people "sick" of it.

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If memory serves...

Proton

There is no such thing. It's all your own attitude problem.

Of course this trip has a strong political side, as did moon landing. It's only natural. To think that this is something only Russians would do, is plain stupid.

Feanor

Actually the expedition does have a political point to it. Russia laid claim to an extensive underwater shelf that is rich in natural resources.

texacali

Fairly cost effective move for Putin. How many square miles are involved so far under Russia's claim?

The Black Ghost

Smart move for Russia considering the amount of oil they have yet-to-be-drilled in the arctic region. If Russia wants the North Pole, they can have it, but Santa's toys are still gunna be coming out of China's workshop.

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'Much madness is divinest sense'

Lunatock

That power mad dictator will claim the entire artic if he's able.

Ucar

From what I have read on the subject, claiming the entire Artic as a continental extension of Russia seems to be the aim of the Putin government. Russian scientists are reportedly working to prove this...

Feanor

Not the entire arctic. just a large shelf that supposedly extends from continental Siberia, which is grounds for it being labeled Russian territory (in theory). Heres an interesting link I found. What I'm not sure about is the accuracy of the maps. it seems like Russia would get less under it's own proposal that under the Canada/Denmark one.

Russia’s Arctic Claim at ComingAnarchy.com

EDIT:

MOSCOW yesterday fired the starting gun on the world's last colonial scramble when a manned submersible planted a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole.

The rust-proof titanium flag was planted on the seabed 4261 metres under the surface of the Arctic Ocean, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Vladimir Strugatsky, vice-president of Russia's polar exploration association, as saying on board a support vessel.

Russia wants to extend the territory in the Arctic it controls right up to the North Pole. The region is believed to hold vast untapped oil and gas reserves.

Soviet and US nuclear submarines have often travelled under the polar icecap, but no one had so far reached the seabed under the Pole, where depths exceed 4000 metres.

Expedition leaders said their main worry was to resurface at the ice hole where they dived as the mini-submersibles are not strong enough to break through the North Pole's desolate icecap.

Two Russian ships had spent more than a week ploughing their way through deep ice towards the North Pole. In a nation that, in Soviet times, pioneered Arctic exploration, the expedition has fired the public's imagination.

"Our main aim is to remind the whole world that Russia is a great polar and scientific research power," the veteran Arctic explorer Artur Chilingarov, who is also a deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, had emailed from the expedition's research ship.

"You can understand that to touch the seabed at such depth is something like taking the first step on the moon."

But Mr Chilingarov also caused international concern after declaring that the Arctic and the North Pole were Russian.

Global warming has given renewed impetus to the race for control of the Arctic. Melting ice sheets could open up the fabled North-East Passage, the quest for which claimed countless sailors' lives, for the first time. The route, which could dramatically cut the length of a journey from Europe to Asia, could become navigable to commercial traffic within eight years.

There is another tantalising prospect. By some estimates, the Arctic holds a quarter of the world's untapped energy reserves - now more accessible than ever.

But some see the expedition as little more than a public relations stunt designed by the Kremlin to attract public support for Russia's long-held claim to a vast chunk of the Arctic - about half the size of Western Europe.

The Kremlin has long believed the territory belonged to Russia and it was marked as such on Soviet maps from the 1920s.

Russia stakes Arctic claim - World - smh.com.au

xrough

Canada to strengthen Arctic claim

As the race to back up claims over the resources of the Arctic Ocean heats up, Canada has said it will build two new military bases in its far north.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement during a tour of Canada's northern territories.

It comes as a Danish mission prepares to sail to the North Pole to map the seabed under the ice.

Last week, a Russian expedition planted the country's flag on the floor of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole.

'Use it or lose it'


Mr Harper said a cold-weather army training base would be set up at Resolute Bay and an existing port at a former mine at Nanisivik would be refurbished to supply Arctic patrol vessels.


See a detailed map of the region
He said the facilities would bolster Canada's claims to disputed portions of the Arctic.

"Canada's new government understands that the first principle of Arctic sovereignty is use it or lose it," Mr Harper said from Resolute, a small Inuit community about 600km (372 miles) south of the North Pole.

"Today's announcements tell the world that Canada has real, growing, long-term presence in the Arctic."

Polar missions

Melting polar ice has led to competing claims over access to Arctic resources, including the Northwest Passage, a shipping channel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans currently blocked by ice during the winter months.

Mr Harper announced plans last month to build six naval vessels to patrol the passage.

Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States also have competing claims to the seabed below the North Pole, an area containing as much as 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas according to a US study.

The area is not currently regarded as part of any single country's territory and is governed instead by complex international agreements.

Last week a Russian expedition sent a mini-submarine to the ocean floor four kilometres (2.5 miles) below the North Pole to further Moscow's claim to the Arctic.

Moscow argues that waters off its northern coast extending to the North Pole belong to its maritime territory because an underwater feature, the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of its continental territory.

On Sunday, Denmark is sending a month-long expedition to the North Pole to study the same underwater ridge to see if it is connected to Greenland, a Danish territory.

The Danish team plans collect data to map the seabed.

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Berkis

Very cost effective indeed


Russian arctic images 'from Titanic' - Telegraph

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