With amo a few weeks ago, the United States grew in size by 1 million square kilometers – that’s almost twice the area of Spain. The unexpected growth is not the result of strange geological forces, nor of the invasion of foreign land, but of the United States’ attempts to lay claim to the surrounding ocean floor territory.
Continental shelves are an area of the sea floor that surrounds large land masses where the sea is relatively shallow compared to the open ocean. Under international law, countries can claim these continental shelves, allowing them to manage and exploit its resources.
⚠️ US claims huge chunk of seabed amid strategic push for resources
The so-called Extended Continental Shelf covers about 1 million square km potentially containing key materials for future tech.
The extended reach is predominantly in the Arctic and Bering Sea, an area of… pic.twitter.com/dMTZMIKrBD
— Zlatti71 (@djuric_zlatko) December 25, 2023
At most 75 countries have defined their boundaries on the extended continental shelf (ECS), which refers to over 200 nautical miles (370 km.) from the shore. So far, the US has not done this.
On December 19, 2023, the US State Department announced new geographic coordinates defining what they claim to be their ECS zone.
Since 2003, the US authorities have cooperated with NOAA, US Geological Survey and 12 other agencies to collect geological data to determine the outer limits of their ECS.
In light of this work, the US now claims to ECS in seven offshore areas: the Arctic, the Atlantic Ocean (the east coast), Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean (the west coast), the Mariana Islands and two areas in the Gulf of Mexico. In total, this occupies an area of 1 million square kilometers.
„America is bigger than it was yesterdayMead Treadwell, former lieutenant governor of Alaska and former chairman of the US Arctic Research Commission, said on December 19. Alaska Public Media.
„It’s not exactly like the Louisiana Purchase (a deal between the US and the French Republic to acquire the territory of the French Louisiana colony, concluded in 1803). It’s not like the Alaska Purchase (an 1867 deal for the sale of Alaska between the governments of the Russian Empire and the United States of America), but the new area of land and underground resources controlled by the United States is two Californias larger“, he added.
„The legality of all this is a bit unclearTreadwell explained in a post about the Wilson Center. For the definition to become official, the US must submit data and reports to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, the US has not ratified UNCLOS due to complex political disagreements (the agreement has been ratified by 168 countries and the European Union).
US claims vast area of seabed
The United States has extended its claims on the sea floor by an area twice the size of California.
The ‘Extended Continental Shelf’ covers about 1 million sq km, predominantly in the Arctic and Bering Sea.
— Ocean & Coastal Futures (OCF) (@CF_Conf) January 11, 2024
This presupposes some uncertainty as to how the proposal will be received under international law.
Needless to say, claims for new maritime boundaries could prove controversial on the international stage. Some of the most significant geopolitical disputes in recent times involve China and its neighbors, such as the Philippines and Vietnam, over claims to the South China Sea.
However, the US would gain a lot from this declaration. Expanding the area they control on the ocean floor in the Arctic Ocean could open up the area to further mining, shipping and fishing – despite the potential damage it could all cause.
There will also be implications for the nation’s security, as well as its influence in the world. As Sir Walter Raleigh wrote in the seventeenth century:
„He who commands the sea commands the commerce, whoever commands the commerce of the world commands the wealth of the world and therefore the world itself.”
2024-01-12 14:52:46
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