The continental shelf of Russia (also called the Russian continental shelf or the Arctic shelf in the Arctic region) is a continental shelf adjacent to the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. Geologically, the extent of the shelf is defined as the entirety of the continental shelves adjacent to Russia's coast. In

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

, however, the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

more narrowly defines the extent of the shelf as the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

and subsoil of the submarine areas over which a state exercises sovereign rights. The

Siberian Shelf The Siberian Shelf is a coastal shelf in the Arctic Ocean and is the largest continental shelf of the Earth, a part of the continental shelf of Russia. It extends from the continent of Eurasia in the general area of North Siberia (hence the name) ...

in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

is the largest (and least explored) of the Russian shelves, a region of strategic importance because of its

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

reserves. Other parts of the Russian shelf are typically named after the corresponding seas: Barents Shelf ( Barents Sea Shelf), Chukchi Shelf (

Chukchi Sea Shelf The Chukchi Sea Shelf or Chukchi Shelf is the westernmost part of the continental shelf of the United States and the easternmost part of the continental shelf of Russia. Within this shelf, the 50-mile Chukchi Corridor acts as a passageway for one ...

), etc. With the exception of internal Russian seas, these geological shelves are shared with other countries which share the corresponding seas. For example, the Chukchi Shelf is shared between Russia and the United States according to the 1990 USA-USSR maritime boundary.

2001 extension claim

On 20 December 2001, Russia made an official submission into the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in accordance with the

(article 76, paragraph 8). In the document it is proposed to establish new outer limits of the continental shelf of Russia beyond the previous 200 nautical mile zone (370 km), but within the Russian Arctic sector. The territory claimed by Russia in the submission is a large portion of the Arctic within Russia's sector and extending to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. One of the arguments was a statement that eastern portion of the

Lomonosov Ridge The Lomonosov Ridge (russian: Хребет Ломоносова, da, Lomonosovryggen) is an unusual underwater ridge of continental crust in the Arctic Ocean. It spans between the New Siberian Islands over the central part of the ocean to Elle ...

, an underwater mountain ridge extending across the polar basin, and the

Mendeleev Ridge The Mendeleev Ridge (or Mendeleev Rise, russian: Хребет Менделеева) is a broad ridge in the Arctic Ocean from the East Siberian Sea area of the Siberian Shelf to the central areas of the ocean. It is attached to the Alpha Ridge o ...

are extensions of the

Eurasian continent Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago an ...

. In 2002, the UN Commission requested that Russia submit additional scientific evidence in support of its claim.

Additional research

Additional research for the Russian claim was planned over 2007–2008 as part of the Russian program for the

International Polar Year The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred ...

. The program investigated the structure and evolution of the Earth's crust in the Arctic regions neighbouring

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

, such as the regions of

Alpha Ridge The Alpha Ridge is a major volcanic ridge under the Arctic Ocean between the Canada Basin (off Ellesmere Island) and the Lomonosov Ridge. It was active during the formation of the Amerasian Basin. It was discovered in 1963. The highest elevatio ...

, and

, to discover whether they were linked with the

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

n shelf. Major means of research during the expedition were the ''

Akademik Fedorov RV ''Akademik Fedorov'' (russian: Академик Фёдоров) is a Russian scientific diesel-electric research vessel, the flagship of the Russian polar research fleet. It was built in Rauma, Finland for the Soviet Union and completed on ...

'' research ship, the ''

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

nuclear icebreaker A nuclear-powered icebreaker is an icebreaker with an Nuclear marine propulsion, onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for the vessel's propulsion system. , Russia is the only country that builds and operates nuclear-powered icebreakers ...

with two

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s and geological probe devices, and Il-18 aircraft with gravimetric devices. In June 2007, a group of 50 Russian scientists returned from a six-week expedition on the ''Russia'' with the news that the Lomonosov Ridge was linked to

territory, supporting Russia's claim over the oil-and-gas rich triangle. The territory contained 10 billion tonnes of gas and

deposits, the scientists said. Russian President Vladimir Putin then used this information to restate the 2001 Russian claim. On 2 August 2007, Russian explorers in a submersible planted the national flag on the seabed below the North Pole in symbolic support of the 2001 claim. A mechanical arm dropped a specially made

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO( ...

-proof

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

flag onto the Arctic seabed at a depth of . Russian sub plants flag under North Pole
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

'', published 2007-08-02, accessed 2 August 2007

International reaction

In response to Russia's planting the national flag on the

at the North Pole, Canadian Foreign Minister

Peter MacKay Peter Gordon MacKay (born September 27, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and has served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2013–2015), Minister of National Defence (2007� ...

said, "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'". In response to these words the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. Lavrov served as the Permanent Represe ...

stated: "I was amazed by my Canadian counterpart's statement that we are planting flags around. We’re not throwing flags around. We just do what other discoverers did. The purpose of the expedition is not to stake whatever rights of Russia, but to prove that our shelf extends to the North Pole and beyond".

Research results

In mid-September 2007, Russia's Natural Resources Ministry issued a statement: On 4 August 2015, Russia submitted additional data in support of its bid, containing new arguments based on "ample scientific data collected in years of Arctic research", for territories in the Arctic to the United Nations. Through this bid, Russia is claiming 1.2 million square kilometers (over 463,000 square miles) of Arctic sea shelf extending more than 350 nautical miles (about 650 kilometers) from the shore. On 9 February 2016, Russia formally submitted to the United Nations a revised application with substantiated evidence of shelf claims to the Arctic Ocean seabed, including an area under the North Pole. The evidential base of this application includes geology and geophysics evidence from nine Russian scientific expeditions. They were launched by Ministry of natural resources and environmental protection in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence and Russian Academy of Sciences. It is important to note that the expeditions were performed by scientific icebreakers and submarines. Moreover, a geological office has conducted acquisitions of bathymetric multibeam sounder, integrated seismic exploration, airborne geophysical measurements and geological sampling of the main Amerasian and Eurasian basins' structures. During the work researchers used a unique technology, specially designed for difficult ice conditions. The icebreaking research vessel ''Akademik Fedorov'' was refitted specifically for seismic operations in ice thickness up to three meters. The justification of Russian claim is confirmed by the continuity of the sedimentary magnitude, elements of basal complex, as well as the overall continuity and consistency of the deep layers of the earth's crust and the absence of strike-slip transverse faults at the junction of the Lomonosov Ridge and the Eurasian continent. All collected data show the continental character of the Lomonosov Ridge, the Mendeleev-Alfa High, the Chukotka Plateau, as well as the continuous extension of these elements from the shallow Eurasian shelf.This Arctic shelf is ours
. "The Independent Barents Observer" Published 2016-08-10. On August 9, 2016, all of this evidence were presented in New York at the 41st session of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).

References

{{Energy in Russia Borders of Russia

Energy in Russia Geography of the Arctic Government of the Arctic Landforms of the Arctic Ocean

2001 extension claim

Additional research

International reaction

Research results

See also

References