News from the Underwater Front
Canadian expedition seeks to prove claim on underwater ridge
Alpha Ridge offers one of Canada's best chances to convince the international scientific community and other polar nations that this country's continental shelf continues for hundreds of kilometres across the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Next month, an expedition aimed at extending Canadian sovereignty to the Alpha Ridge - and its potential resource riches will start, reports National Post.
"This is a major expedition," Jacob Verhoef, the Halifax-based federal geoscientist heading the project, told Canwest News Service this week. "We are trying to prove scientifically that Alpha Ridge is a natural prolongation of the North American continent."
The seabed survey, to be conducted from makeshift research stations on Arctic ice floating above the ridge, is part of an urgent effort by Canada to meet its 2013 deadline -set out by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea - to propose undersea extensions to Canada's coastal boundaries.