Canadians Plan Robot Sub Missions To Aid Claim For Arctic

jbpisio writes with a link to this blog-post summary that the Canadian government has commissioned a pair of unmanned subs to explore the geology of two underwater Arctic mountain ranges; the subs' mission will be to provide evidence supporting Canada's claim to huge swaths of potentially petroleum-rich seabed areas. According to the linked article, "The submersibles, scheduled to be launched in 2010, would be sent on a series of 400-kilometer missions north and west of Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost land mass and the country's gateway to the open Arctic Ocean — the scene of an international power struggle over undersea territory and petroleum resources believed to be worth trillions of dollars." At least five countries (besides Canada, these are the US, Russia, Denmark and Norway) would like a slice of those trillions.

Comments

Re:Is it worth it?

[Anonymous Coward]

The area in question is VERY unlikely to be explored for petroleum, let alone developed, for decades. And there may be nothing there.

The real issue is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which allows countries to claim exclusive mineral rights beyond the current 200 nautical mile limit, out to the edge of the continental margin (which the treaty calls the "continental shelf", but it's not the same as the usual definition of that term). In some places this can be a significant chunk of territory. However, to establish the claim you have to define the geological boundary between continental crust and ocean crust, and there is a limited time to do so after ratification of the treaty (10 years). In Canada's case, the treaty was ratified in 2003. Canada therefore has to submit the claim to the responsible UN commission by 2013. In the part of the Arctic Ocean that is close to Canada, there is a large area (e.g., the Alpha Ridge) that is shallow enough that it could be claimed (the white line in the picture in the above link), if it is shown to be continental material. Unfortunately there isn't much known about that area, because the Arctic Ocean is one of the least-understood ocean basins. Hence there is a strong motivation to find out more about it, and sooner than 2013. With sea ice covering most of the area most of the year, it makes sense to use subs to survey it.

It isn't so much a "power struggle" as a 10-year window to define a geological boundary in order to make an exclusive claim in the area, under international law. After that, the 200 nautical mile limit becomes the permanent boundary. Russia, Denmark (Greenland), and Norway have ratified the treaty, so they're in the running with Canada. The U.S. isn't, because it hasn't ratified, but it doesn't have much to gain in the Arctic (the continental margin in Alaska is narrow). As a sign that it isn't really much of a "power struggle", Canada, Russia, and Denmark have all run joint scientific expeditions to the area to study the sea floor geology in the last several years.

Re:Make up your mind

[florescent_beige]

You rag on John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative) for cancelling a very expensive program and you whine that Stephen Harper (Conservative) is not spending enough on exploring the arctic.

You're either a troll or a disgruntled liberal will find any excuse to bash the conservatives. Frankly, I don't know how you got moderated up.

There's a difference between liberal and Liberal, which one did you mean? Are you another Canadian who takes his lessons on political discourse from from American talk radio and don't know the difference?

Diefenbaker toadied up to Eisenhower and destroyed the Canadian aerospace industry, airframe and engine at the behest of the Americans who didn't want the competition. (Ironically ever since then Americans have ragged on Canada for not pulling our weight, which makes me choke).

Harper is either lying or delusional about the cost of icebreakers.

What exactly is your problem with these statements? Factually incorrect or just inconvenient for those Canadians who would rather be Americans?

Re:Only a matter of time

[molarmass192]

A couple of corrections, the population of Alert is closer to 200, and the nearest city (Iqaluit) is about 1300 miles away. That said, Iqaluit has a pop of about 7000, so town might be a better term. However, that land does fall under the Nunavut territory, so the riches really are theirs to control.