As Russia spars with its polar neighbors Canada, Norway, Denmark, and the US for territory in the artic (as previously discussed here and here), Moscow’s claim for more territory is just the beginning of what could become the last push to finalize borders between nations where firm borders have not yet been drawn.

Russia’s claims is backed by new mapping of the ocean bed, and a similar project is underway at the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM). Dr. Jim Gardner of CCOM points out that with new technology and new mapping, the days of when nations marked what they owned at sea by measuring from their shoreline is over.

The arctic has taken the headlines because Russia has been so aggressive in its claims. But this is just the beginning. As CCOM plots the Atlantic Margin off the East Coast, the Marianas in the Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico, they’re racing to prove that the US controls more territory than anyone thought. Alaska, for example, could extend 150 miles farther into the Arctic Ocean than today’s maps show. And the country’s sovereignty may not end off the shore of the Gulf Coast; it’s really more like the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

The red lines indicate newly “discovered” areas of the continental shelf.

At the end of the day, even conservative estimates set the US to “grow” by at least 386,000 square miles, and the oil, gas, and other resources contained in that area could be worth about $1.3 trillion. After that, the question is how much data CCOM can collect to allow Wasington to extend its fence line to the farthest extent justified by science.

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