Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency

Scientists race to map Arctic floor

23 August 2007

Scientists from the US are this week joining the international competition over territory  by beginning to map the polar sea floor.

As reported by the Financial Times®, the mission is part of an effort, costing around $1 million (about £500 000), to gather data to support the US territorial claim.

Several countries are expected to use detailed mapping data to bolster claims made under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Russia and Norway have already submitted their data to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which is primarily responsible for deciding how shipping and oil rights are divided in the area.

Canada and Denmark are also expected to make claims.

Sophisticated seabed sonar mapping techniques were also used recently to reveal that a catastrophic flood separated Britain from mainland Europe over 200 000 years ago.

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