Lomonosov Ridge

The Lomonosov Ridge is about 1800 km long oceanic ridge in the Arctic Ocean. It runs from the New Siberian Islands over the central part of the ocean under the geographic North Pole to Ellesmere Island near Greenland. The width of the back varies between 60 and 200 km. It projects to 3300-3700 m above the seabed. The least depth of the ridge is 954 m.

Discovery and Exploration

The Lomonosov Ridge was discovered in 1948 by a Soviet expedition and named after Mikhail Lomonosov.

After obtained by drilling current findings involve the Lomonosov Ridge is not a deep-sea oceanic ridges and, therefore part of an oceanic plate, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge but a separate part of the continents of the Continental crust and thus part of a continental plate. The cause of the separation, scientists suspect the formation of Gakkelrückens, which is an oceanic ridge.

Today's meaning

At the beginning of the 21st century drew the geological structure of the back, the international attention, as Russia made ​​a submission to the UN under Article 76 paragraph 8 of the UN Convention in December 2001. Therein Russia proposed a new frontier of the Russian continental shelf beyond the 200 -mile zone, but within the Russian Arctic sector before. The method claimed in the entry area extends over a large part of the Arctic including the North Pole. One of the arguments put forward was that the Lomonosov Ridge and the Mendeleev Ridge are extensions of the Eurasian continent. In 2002, the UN has the Russian proposal neither rejected nor accepted, but required further research.

For economic reasons, because of competition hoped mineral resources are now trying to Danish researchers to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Greenland, which Denmark had claims to the territory. Canada, which has also filed claims, claims that the back is an extension of its own continental shelf.

In April 2007, Canadian and Russian expeditions were sent to the back to map. In June of the same year alleged Russian scientist Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Russian territory. Therefore, a Russian expedition sent late July 2007 an icebreaker and two mini - submarines, Mir- I and Mir II to explore in depth.

Russian scientists dived 4,261 meters ( 14,000 feet ) down and anchored a stainless Russian flag made ​​of titanium on the seabed, as a symbolic sign of the stress on the area. Another Russian expedition is planned for November 2007.

Mid-September 2007 was the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources following press release from: