Abstract:

As of 2020, four of the five countries surrounding the Arctic Ocean, excluding the United States, which has not yet approved the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, have introduced submissions for the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles (M) in the Arctic Ocean. Among them, Russia, Canada, and Denmark have laid claims to large continental shelf areas based on the large-scale submarine features in the Arctic Ocean. If all claims were approved by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, there would be very little international seabed area left. However, considering the particularity of the geological structure in the Arctic Ocean, there are many uncertainties in the application of Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, resulting in multiple possibilities of outer limits. In accordance with Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Scientific and Technical Guidelines of the Commission, and with consideration of practices on the delimitation of the continental shelf, for this manuscript, comparative study was carried out on the continental shelf claims of coastal states in the Arctic Ocean. Based on current scientific research on the Lomonosov Ridge and the Alpha–Mendeleev Ridge Complex, it is suggested that the ridge issues within Article 76 should be applied with caution. The issue of regionalization of the continental shelf by the coastal states of the Arctic Ocean will likely have a negative impact.

Key words:

"> Arctic Ocean, continental shelf delineation, natural prolongation, ridge, submarine elevation