미등록美, 20년간 '대륙붕 확장' 추진…알래스카 이래 최대 해저영토 차지할까 [팩트매터]

You probably don't know it, but in December of 2023, the United States got a lot bigger. Specifically, the U.S. added about 1 million square kilometers to its national territory. That's approximately 386,000 square miles, or roughly the size of two Californias. Now, you would think that something like this would have made front-page news across the country, but it actually went largely unnoticed, probably because the area in question is not a physical landmass. Instead, the U.S. gained a million square kilometers of premium seafloor real estate. This expansion, just from a sheer size perspective, is the most significant enlargement of the U.S. since the year 1867, which is the year that we purchased Alaska from Russia. And at least one mapping expert is saying that from a strategic location perspective, this addition is as consequential as the Louisiana purchase. However, before we get into the details of the U.S.'s newfound expansion, let's take a quick moment to go through the relevant laws of the seas that govern expansions like this. To start, back in the 20th century, as developed countries began to expand their mining and fishing technologies, as well as their offshore research capabilities, it became apparent that the largely unexplored ocean floor was going to be very important moving forward. Just in terms of the valuable assets that might be down, there are things like marine life, oil and gas, mineral deposits, and things like that. And so, because clashes over these underwater assets were essentially inevitable, the United Nations set out to establish globally recognized ground rules for who exactly owns what. This effort of theirs culminated in 1982, when the U.N. adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also known as the Law of the Sea Treaty. Now, it took a little while for that treaty to go into effect. However, as of today, the treaty has been ratified by 169 nations, as well as the entirety of the European Union. And what the treaty essentially did is that it established the international rules for territorial waters, as well as established the mechanisms for resolving conflicts between different nation states. Here's specifically how the treaty broke down the five different maritime zones, as well as which countries can lay claim to those zones. Firstly is a nation's territorial waters. These extend 12 nautical miles out from the country's shoreline, and this is where the coastal nation state has 100% full sovereignty. Beyond this, up to 24 nautical miles from the baseline is the contiguous zone. This is where a nation can enforce certain laws concerning things like customs, taxation, immigration, and pollution. Then there is the exclusive economic zone, or the EEZ, which extends 200 nautical miles from the shoreline. Within this zone, the coastal nation has the sole right to exploit that zone's natural resources, things like fish, oil, minerals, etc. And that coastal nation is free to deploy other economic activities in that zone, things like setting up windmills and tidal power generators. Then below the water, a nation's continental shelf, it extends to the outer edge of that nation's continental margin, or 200 nautical miles from the baseline, whichever one is greater. And so basically, all countries with a shoreline, they get at least 200 nautical miles of seabed, but if that nation can prove that their continental shelf actually juts out further than 200 miles, they can lay claim to that additional land as well. And within the zone, nations have the right to harvest the seabed, extracting things like minerals, rare earth metals, and so on. And then beyond that point, you have what are known as the high seas. These are open to all states, whether they're coastal or landlocked, it doesn't matter. The high seas are beyond any national jurisdiction. The treaty ensures things like freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight, freedom of fishing, scientific research, and things like that on the high seas for all nations. And so that is generally the breakdown of what the treaty established in terms of the five different maritime zones and who owns what. But here's where things get interesting. If you look at that map once again, you'll see that the area just beyond that 200 nautical mile mark is essentially up for grabs by any nation who can make a convincing argument that their continental shelf reaches beyond that point. If it does, they should, according to that treaty, hold the rights to that seabed. These areas are known as extended continental shelves. Within these zones, nations do not have the right to the water column or the fish above the seabed, but they have the exclusive rights to everything on the seabed below, which is where you can find things like oil, minerals, gas, rare earth metals, things like that. And so with that as the general legal backdrop, the U.S. government has been working overtime behind the scenes to expand America's underwater footprint by as much as possible within this ECS, within this extended continental shelf zone. For the past 20 years now, throughout several different administrations, a giant intergovernmental task force called the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Project has spent tens of millions of dollars conducting over 40 seafloor mapping expeditions in order to collect data from under the water surrounding America. And it's really not a stretch to call this a giant task force. Let me just give you a taste of how big the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Project actually was. The task force itself was led jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey. Then, alongside them, you had the following agencies be involved. The Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, also known as the EPA. You had the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the Arctic Research Commission, the Marine Mammal Commission, the U.S. Navy, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard. All those different agencies worked for the past 20 years to map out the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf. This work of theirs eventually culminated in this December 19, 2023 statement that was released by the State Department. This statement, it announced America's new claims to several extended continental shelf sections. And these new claims are massive, adding an additional 1 million square kilometers to America's territory. That's roughly 386,000 square nautical miles of new land, roughly equivalent to the entirety of the size of Egypt. However, these new American claims are not one giant contiguous zone. Instead, they actually consist of seven different pockets. The first one is up by Alaska. This Arctic extended continental shelf is basically a wedge-shaped slice of the Arctic Ocean north of the Alaskan mainland. And by far, this is the single largest addition. Just by itself, this Arctic portion represents over half of America's gains, roughly 151,000 square nautical miles. And also, this one is likely going to prove to be the most important in terms of resource potential. There might be a lot of oil, natural gas and mineral deposits up there over by Alaska. And also, considering that that area will likely grow to be more important for global shipping and trade in the future, it's also a great strategic position for the U.S. to be able to lay claim to, with some people suggesting that this one area by itself may prove as consequential as the entirety of the Louisiana Purchase. Then secondly, on the very other side of the country, you have the second largest addition, the Atlantic extended continental shelf, which stretches from the Bahamas all the way up to Canada. This segment adds roughly 69,000 square nautical miles to America's territory. Then you have the Bering ECS, which plugged up a hole in the U.S.-Russia maritime border. And this new claim adds 51,000 square nautical miles. Then over by California, you have the Pacific ECS. It's a small bulge off of the coast of northern California. And this one adds approximately 13,000 square nautical miles. Then you have two neighboring patches over in the Gulf of Mexico, which together add about 7,000 square nautical miles to America's ECS. And then lastly, you have the Mariana ECS, which is a very small triangle over by the northern Mariana Islands, which adds about 380 square nautical miles. Together, these seven sections, they add up to a cool 386,000 square nautical miles of new premium seafloor real estate. Now, it should be noted that for one, America's new claims in the Arctic actually align perfectly with a maritime boundary agreement that we signed with Russia back in the 1990s. So fortunately, there is no territorial dispute between America and Russia at all. However, some of America's other new claims do intrude on similar claims made by Canada, Japan and the Bahamas. And so those borders will have to be worked out. But luckily, there is a very low risk of conflict with any of those particular countries because, well, we have friendly relationships with them. In fact, along that line, in their statement, the U.S. State Department mentioned that in those areas, the U.S. and our neighbors will need to establish new maritime boundaries moving forward. And so there you have it, the story of how America just got a lot bigger. And in terms of why this is important, why the U.S. government spent tens of millions of dollars to expand our underwater claims, take a look at this. The Global Marine Mineral Resources Project is a sub-agency within the U.S. government, and they're tasked with studying the deep ocean in order to figure out which minerals occur both within the U.S. exclusive economic zone as well as in areas beyond our national jurisdiction, such as the several areas that we just got claimed to. And in terms of what's down there, what they've been able to find, meaning, over on their website, the Global Marine Mineral Resources Project, they list out several types of minerals that they were able to find during their data collection process. First, they were able to find ferromanganese crusts. These crusts, they expand on the ocean floor at a rate of only several millimeters per million years. However, the agency, they found crust of this sort on the ocean floor that were upwards of 20 centimeters thick, making them literally over 70 million years old. And these crusts, they act as a sort of sponge, absorbing metals and other elements from the ocean over the course of millions of years. And so they are especially rich in things like cobalt, manganese, rare metals such as tellurium, precious metals such as platinum, as well as several rare earth elements that are in need in heavy industry. Then, besides these crusts, manganese nodules have also been found to cover the ocean floor. These manganese nodules, they vary from roughly golf ball size to something like baseball size. And just like the crusts, they grow very slowly over the course of millions of years. And these nodules, they're of great interest for mining because they contain high concentrations of things like nickel, manganese, copper, as well as lithium. Then there are seafloor massive sulfides. These are mineral rocks which are rich in things like copper, zinc, iron, gold and silver. And then besides all that, lastly, there are marine phosphorite. These rocks, they're good sources of phosphate, which is used as a fertilizer in agriculture. They contain upwards of 4% fluorine, which is used in the creation of nuclear material for nuclear power plants, as well as to insulate electrical towers. And they can also contain high concentrations of rare earth elements needed in heavy industry. And so, taken together, all these different types of mineral deposits on the ocean floor are really valuable to the U.S. In fact, not too long ago, the U.S. Geological Survey, they released an official list of the 50 critical minerals that America needs. You can see the list up on your screen. Basically, for the ones highlighted in yellow, we know that there's a lot down there on the ocean floor, while the ones highlighted in green, we don't know how much there is, but we do know that it's down there. This means Basically, that out of the 50 critical minerals that this country needs, at least 19 of them have been found in some concentration down on the ocean floor. Now, in terms of the next steps, the U.S. State Department has submitted our official expansion application with the relevant United Nations agency. For reference, that particular agency, it's called the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. It's essentially an expert body that was established in 1982 by the United Nations as a part of the treaty. This agency, it's going to take a look at all the research data that the U.S. was able to compile and send in as a part of their application, and then they'll give back their official recommendation. The U.S. can then take that recommendation and use it to officially establish our country's new outer limits. This whole process might take a few years. The last time this happened, it was Russia that was attempting to expand their continental shelf, and that process took approximately six years, so who knows how long this process will take. I'll let you know if there are any updates. Until then, if you'd like to go through any of my research for today's episode, I'll throw all my research notes, and they'll be down in the description box below this video. And also, just as an aside, I didn't know where else in the videos to put this, but interestingly and technically, the U.S. is one of the few countries that never actually ratified the U.N. Treaty on the Law of the Sea. Many countries did, almost every country in the world did, but the U.S. was one of the ones that did not. There was always a bit of a disagreement in regards to the treaty that dealt with resource extraction in areas outside of national jurisdictions. You had U.S. officials throughout the years and throughout different administrations feel that the terms were unfavorable to our economy as well as to our national security, and so the U.S. has actually never ratified the treaty as a whole. However, as this whole episode shows, they do still abide by the treaty, spending 20 full years to submit an application like this in accordance with the U.N. Charter. However, however, if for some reason the U.N. Committee decides to reject our application, well then technically, we never signed the treaty in the first place, so I guess we'll have to see how that plays out. And then until next time, I'm your host Roman from The Epoch Times. Stay informed, and most importantly, stay free.