Denmark: A Claim to the North Pole

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/world/europe/denmark-a-claim-to-the-north-pole.html

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Scientific data shows that Greenland’s continental shelf is connected to a ridge beneath the Arctic Ocean, giving Denmark a claim to the North Pole and any energy resources beneath it, Denmark’s foreign minister has said. Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said Denmark would deliver a claim on Monday to a United Nations panel in New York that would eventually decide control of the area, which Russia and Canada also covet. The five Arctic countries — the United States, Russia, Norway, Canada and Denmark — all have areas surrounding the North Pole, but only Canada and Russia had indicated an interest in it before Denmark’s claim. Mr. Lidegaard said he expected no quick decisions. From 2007 to 2012, Danish scientists, with colleagues from Canada, Sweden and Russia, surveyed a 1,240-mile-long underwater mountain range that runs north of Siberia, concluding that Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, is geologically attached to the ridge. That prompted the Danes to claim the right to exploit an area of 345,600 square miles.