We always thought of the geographic North pole to be no man’s land. I guess, it’s not quite correct. A team of Russian divers and scientists are going down under in the waters of North pole to prove that North Pole is an extension of the Russian landmass.
The claim and mission:
Recently, Russia claimed that North Pole is part of their territory. According to Artur Chilingarov, a member of the North pole team:
The Arctic is ours and we should demonstrate our presence
Colleague and fellow parliamentarian of Mr.Chilingarov, Vladimir Gruzdev agrees:
We must remind the whole world that Russia is a great polar and scientific power.
In order to prove this, the team of scientists is using a deep water submarine capsule called Mir. The Mir will go deep in the waters of North Pole (as far as 4,300 meters) to prove the Russian claim.
Preparations:
In order to make the necessary preparations for the final dive, the Russian team is currently busy with a dry run of the mission in the Baltic Sea. These tests will get the Mir marine capsule for the mission.
The Mir capsule will be equipped with hitech and state of the art gadgets. These are mostly geared for taking soil samples and trapping animals.
The underwater capsule will be using space grade titanium and several coats of titanium. This is going to make this thing light but yet strong enough to withstand the pressures of the deep waters. The nickel steel construction of the Mir submarines allow them to with stand the pressures of three tons per square inch at around 14,000 feet level.
Current scenario:
As of now, no one has claimed the North pole except the Russians. According to the law of the Sea Convention, States can sometimes extend their 200 nautical miles of economic boundary. This basically means, if Russia is able to prove this, they might be able to use North Pole as fishing ground and other purposes.
All they have to do is to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is matching with the territorial structure of Russia. In other words, the land should be a broken off piece.
This is an exciting time for the Russians. If the research and measurements can prove this, North pole will be Russian territory. But, here’s what I have been thinking of.
If Russia thinks that North pole is connected to their landmass, doesn’t this also mean that Russia is part of Canada (since part of North pole is Canadian territory). I am just trying to follow along the lines of Russian logic. Anyway, hopefully something more knowledgeable will come out of this territorial dispute involving North pole.
Image Credits: Russiatoday, Deepoceanexpeditions, Blavish
Source Link: BBC