Denmark joins race to claim North Pole
By Ben Leapman, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:37am BST 14/08/2007
Denmark is joining the scramble for the Arctic with the launch of a scientific mission to try to prove its ownership of the North Pole.
Forty scientists, travelling by ice breaker, will gather evidence to support a claim that an underwater mountain range beneath the polar ice cap is an extension of the Danish territory of Greenland.
Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper announced plans for an army training cente in the Arctic
The move will add to tensions in the region, after Russia provoked anger this month by planting a rust-proof titanium flag on the sea bed beneath the Pole. On Friday, Canada announced two new military bases in its far north. Norway and the US also have territorial claims in the region.
Vast energy reserves beneath the floor of the Arctic Ocean have sparked renewed interest in the long-neglected polar territories.
The US Geological Survey has estimated that the Arctic has up to 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
Deep ice and the bitter climate have long made oil extraction uneconomic, but the thinning of the ice cap with global warming has begun to make drilling feasible.
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The Danish expedition sets off today from the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard.
The team of scientists, only 10 of whom are Danish nationals, will sail aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden.
Assisted by a Russian nuclear icebreaker, they will plough through pack ice up to 16 ft deep, north of Greenland, using sophisticated equipment including sonar to map the sea bed below.
Their target is the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,200-mile long underwater structure which is also claimed by Russia and Canada.
Whichever country can prove the ridge is part of its continental shelf will be entitled to the mineral wealth below, under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea.
According to the Danish government, evidence gathered during the trip could clinch ownership of the North Pole for the nation, which has a population of fewer than six million and whose entire mainland lies further south than John O'Groats.
Its claim to the Pole is based on its ownership of Greenland, which has a population of only 57,000 and was awarded to the Danes in 1933 by an international court which rejected Norway's claim to the vast, frozen island.
Helge Sander, Denmark's minister of science, technology and innovation, said: "The preliminary investigations done so far are very promising. There are things suggesting that Denmark could be given the North Pole."
Christian Marcussen of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, the expedition leader, said: "We will be collecting data for a possible [sovereignty] demand.
"No one has ever sailed in that area. Ships have sailed on the edges of the ice, but no one has been in there. The challenge will be the ice."
Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, travelled last week to Resolute Bay, deep in the Arctic Circle, where he unveiled plans for an army training centre for cold-weather fighting.
A deep-water port will be built at Nanisivik, on Baffin Island, and Canada will recruit 900 troops to strengthen the Rangers, a force made up largely of part-timers from the indigenous Inuit population.
Two weeks ago, a team of six Russian explorers, led by Arthur Chilingarov, using two manned miniature submarines, planted a titanium capsule containing the Russian flag on the Lomonosov Ridge, 2½ miles below the ice of the North Pole.
Their mission followed an speech by President Putin, made on an ice-breaker, urging greater efforts to secure Russia's "strategic, economic, scientific and defence interests" in the Arctic.
Canada dismissed the flag-planting exploits as a stunt. Peter MacKay, the foreign minister in Ottawa, declared: "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around and just plant flags saying, 'We're claiming this territory'."
International law allows nations to exploit sea bed mineral deposits up to 200 miles off their coasts.
Under the UN convention, countries seeking to extend their sovereignty have 10 years after the date of ratification in which to lodge claims related to the extent of their continental shelves.
A United Nations body, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, will adjudicate the claims.
The US claim, which arises from the state of Alaska, is complicated by the fact that Washington has refused to ratify the UN convention.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
Last Updated: 2:37am BST 14/08/2007
Denmark is joining the scramble for the Arctic with the launch of a scientific mission to try to prove its ownership of the North Pole.
Forty scientists, travelling by ice breaker, will gather evidence to support a claim that an underwater mountain range beneath the polar ice cap is an extension of the Danish territory of Greenland.
Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper announced plans for an army training cente in the Arctic
The move will add to tensions in the region, after Russia provoked anger this month by planting a rust-proof titanium flag on the sea bed beneath the Pole. On Friday, Canada announced two new military bases in its far north. Norway and the US also have territorial claims in the region.
Vast energy reserves beneath the floor of the Arctic Ocean have sparked renewed interest in the long-neglected polar territories.
The US Geological Survey has estimated that the Arctic has up to 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
Deep ice and the bitter climate have long made oil extraction uneconomic, but the thinning of the ice cap with global warming has begun to make drilling feasible.
advertisement
The Danish expedition sets off today from the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard.
The team of scientists, only 10 of whom are Danish nationals, will sail aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden.
Assisted by a Russian nuclear icebreaker, they will plough through pack ice up to 16 ft deep, north of Greenland, using sophisticated equipment including sonar to map the sea bed below.
Their target is the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,200-mile long underwater structure which is also claimed by Russia and Canada.
Whichever country can prove the ridge is part of its continental shelf will be entitled to the mineral wealth below, under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea.
According to the Danish government, evidence gathered during the trip could clinch ownership of the North Pole for the nation, which has a population of fewer than six million and whose entire mainland lies further south than John O'Groats.
Its claim to the Pole is based on its ownership of Greenland, which has a population of only 57,000 and was awarded to the Danes in 1933 by an international court which rejected Norway's claim to the vast, frozen island.
Helge Sander, Denmark's minister of science, technology and innovation, said: "The preliminary investigations done so far are very promising. There are things suggesting that Denmark could be given the North Pole."
Christian Marcussen of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, the expedition leader, said: "We will be collecting data for a possible [sovereignty] demand.
"No one has ever sailed in that area. Ships have sailed on the edges of the ice, but no one has been in there. The challenge will be the ice."
Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, travelled last week to Resolute Bay, deep in the Arctic Circle, where he unveiled plans for an army training centre for cold-weather fighting.
A deep-water port will be built at Nanisivik, on Baffin Island, and Canada will recruit 900 troops to strengthen the Rangers, a force made up largely of part-timers from the indigenous Inuit population.
Two weeks ago, a team of six Russian explorers, led by Arthur Chilingarov, using two manned miniature submarines, planted a titanium capsule containing the Russian flag on the Lomonosov Ridge, 2½ miles below the ice of the North Pole.
Their mission followed an speech by President Putin, made on an ice-breaker, urging greater efforts to secure Russia's "strategic, economic, scientific and defence interests" in the Arctic.
Canada dismissed the flag-planting exploits as a stunt. Peter MacKay, the foreign minister in Ottawa, declared: "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around and just plant flags saying, 'We're claiming this territory'."
International law allows nations to exploit sea bed mineral deposits up to 200 miles off their coasts.
Under the UN convention, countries seeking to extend their sovereignty have 10 years after the date of ratification in which to lodge claims related to the extent of their continental shelves.
A United Nations body, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, will adjudicate the claims.
The US claim, which arises from the state of Alaska, is complicated by the fact that Washington has refused to ratify the UN convention.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
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