Russian Scientists to Conduct Research to Back Russia’s Arctic Sea Bed Claims
03.11.2009 - Water & Oceans, Land & Geology, Other, Arctic
Moscow is planning extensive scientific research to support its claim on a portion of Arctic Sea bed which it claims to be a prolongation of the Russian continental shelf, which is believed to contain vast oil, natural gas and mineral resources. The Russians commissioned ice-breakers and research vessels with a series of missions to be conducted over the next three years to conduct the research.
After a first claim to the Arctic seabed that was rejected for lack of evidence in 2001 and the symbolic dropping of a canister containing the Russian flag on the bottom of the Arctic Sea in 2007, polar scientist Artur Chilingarov said Russia might resubmit their claim to the seabed in 2013 after gathering more data. The only nation to have an atomic icebreaker fleet, Russia is currently designing a new class of atomic icebreakers and plans to eventually build four of them.
