Countries can claim up to 200 miles as an "Exclusive Economic Zone". In other words, the US can't put an oil rig in the Persian Gulf 25 miles off the coast of Iran, and the Russians aren't supposed to send fishing boats to park 52 miles off the eastern coast of the US and/or Canada
Best explanation of the EEZ yet. The 200 nm EEZ limit is for economic, not legal, purposes.
Wikipedia says that the 24 nm "territorial waters" limit is for "smuggling and illegal immigration." The main purpose behind this SeaCode idea is so that they can get talented foreign workers without having to go through HB1 visas (Worker visas for technical workers.) They said that all of the workers would still have travel visas, however, so they could go to shore. I'm not sure how the immigration law plays out in this respect and I wasn't able to find out after a couple minutes of websurfing.
And there is a lot more backing that up than the US Navy. There is a whole series of treates going back at least half a century, and a body of international admiralty law going back 500 years or more.
Yes and No... Most of the current law is based on the historical treaties, but the US is not a signatory to the UN Convention Law of the Sea, which set up the modern boundaries, and therefore just about every point about "International Law" is moot. The US does claim similar boundaries as UNCLOS, but the only thing backing these up are the Coast Guard, Navy, and other segments of the military.
As an oceanography student, I feel compelled to answer this post. The first 2 paragraphs are general background. If you want to get to the point, skip to the 3rd.
While it's true that the continents are "floating" it's exactly the same as ice floating in water. The materials that make up the continental crust (granitic igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, etc...) are less dense than the oceanic crust upon which the sit (mostly basaltic igneous rocks). The continental crust is often considered to be "floating" on the oceanic crust. Because of this density difference, continental material tends to stay on the surface of the earth. As a plate with "continental materials" is subducted below another plate, the continental materials melt and the lighter components rise due to their lower densities. These "continental materials" are usually deep-sea sediments that have been eroded from the continents and deposited on the ocean floor. These materials are scraped off of the plate, melt, and rise to the surface as volcanoes or granitic intrusions. These volcanoes are like most of the ones along the Ring of Fire, where oceanic plates are subducted beneath the continental plates. Good examples are Mt. Washington and the many volcanoes in Central America.
When an oceanic and a continental plate converge, the oceanic plate is always subducted underneath the continental plate. This is because the oceanic material is colder and denser and therefore the continental material stays on the surface. If 2 continental plates meet (ex: Now: The Himalayas, Past: Appalachians or the Urals) All of the continental material on the top is squeezed together and stays on top so that huge mountain ranges form.
Now, there is also the principle of isostatic rebound. Think of a couch that you've sit in for a while. When you get up, you've left an imprint on the chair. That's kind of what happened to the continents during the last ice age. The pressure of the overlying ice sheets "pushed down" the areas which they were upon and also "pushed up" the areas around the sheets. Just as the couch eventual goes back to an equilibrium position, so are the continents doing right now. In some areas, especially near the poles the ground is rising fast (88 mm/yr in Scandinavia) , while in others, actually dropping fast.
Now to incorporate the oceans- water is less dense than almost every rock (except for some pumices) Continental crust is ~2.6 g/cc and oceanic crust is ~2.8 - 3g/cc. Water's density 1 g/cc under standard conditions, does not get close to the range of rocks, even when it's very cold and salty. Therefore, water will always rise above the rocks. To determine the change in sealevel at a particular site, you have to factor in both the isostatic rebound of the site and the rise in mean ocean level due to melting of ice caps and glaciers. Even if the mean ocean level rises, some places will experience a decrease in sea level because their rate of isostatic rebound is faster than the rate of sea-level rise.
To sum up, the continents don't float on water, they float on rock. Global warming is a highly debated area, but within the past few years, mean sea level has been rising. The area of glaciers worldwide has decreased, and the icecaps are diminishing. There are many other factors involved, but this semi-short description should help explain how the continents are floating. For more info, check out www.usgs.gov.
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Wikipedia says that the 24 nm "territorial waters" limit is for "smuggling and illegal immigration." The main purpose behind this SeaCode idea is so that they can get talented foreign workers without having to go through HB1 visas (Worker visas for technical workers.) They said that all of the workers would still have travel visas, however, so they could go to shore. I'm not sure how the immigration law plays out in this respect and I wasn't able to find out after a couple minutes of websurfing.
Yes and No... Most of the current law is based on the historical treaties, but the US is not a signatory to the UN Convention Law of the Sea, which set up the modern boundaries, and therefore just about every point about "International Law" is moot. The US does claim similar boundaries as UNCLOS, but the only thing backing these up are the Coast Guard, Navy, and other segments of the military.
As an oceanography student, I feel compelled to answer this post. The first 2 paragraphs are general background. If you want to get to the point, skip to the 3rd.
While it's true that the continents are "floating" it's exactly the same as ice floating in water. The materials that make up the continental crust (granitic igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, etc...) are less dense than the oceanic crust upon which the sit (mostly basaltic igneous rocks). The continental crust is often considered to be "floating" on the oceanic crust. Because of this density difference, continental material tends to stay on the surface of the earth. As a plate with "continental materials" is subducted below another plate, the continental materials melt and the lighter components rise due to their lower densities. These "continental materials" are usually deep-sea sediments that have been eroded from the continents and deposited on the ocean floor. These materials are scraped off of the plate, melt, and rise to the surface as volcanoes or granitic intrusions. These volcanoes are like most of the ones along the Ring of Fire, where oceanic plates are subducted beneath the continental plates. Good examples are Mt. Washington and the many volcanoes in Central America.
When an oceanic and a continental plate converge, the oceanic plate is always subducted underneath the continental plate. This is because the oceanic material is colder and denser and therefore the continental material stays on the surface. If 2 continental plates meet (ex: Now: The Himalayas, Past: Appalachians or the Urals) All of the continental material on the top is squeezed together and stays on top so that huge mountain ranges form.
Now, there is also the principle of isostatic rebound. Think of a couch that you've sit in for a while. When you get up, you've left an imprint on the chair. That's kind of what happened to the continents during the last ice age. The pressure of the overlying ice sheets "pushed down" the areas which they were upon and also "pushed up" the areas around the sheets. Just as the couch eventual goes back to an equilibrium position, so are the continents doing right now. In some areas, especially near the poles the ground is rising fast (88 mm/yr in Scandinavia) , while in others, actually dropping fast.
Now to incorporate the oceans- water is less dense than almost every rock (except for some pumices) Continental crust is ~2.6 g/cc and oceanic crust is ~2.8 - 3g/cc. Water's density 1 g/cc under standard conditions, does not get close to the range of rocks, even when it's very cold and salty. Therefore, water will always rise above the rocks. To determine the change in sealevel at a particular site, you have to factor in both the isostatic rebound of the site and the rise in mean ocean level due to melting of ice caps and glaciers. Even if the mean ocean level rises, some places will experience a decrease in sea level because their rate of isostatic rebound is faster than the rate of sea-level rise.
To sum up, the continents don't float on water, they float on rock. Global warming is a highly debated area, but within the past few years, mean sea level has been rising. The area of glaciers worldwide has decreased, and the icecaps are diminishing. There are many other factors involved, but this semi-short description should help explain how the continents are floating. For more info, check out www.usgs.gov.