(Newsvine) Preliminary tests on soil samples gathered by a Russian scientific expedition indicate that a vast mountain range under the Arctic Ocean is part of Russia's continental shelf, a government ministry said Thursday.
Russia is one of several countries that have rushed to lay claims to the area where a U.S. study suggests as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas could be hidden.
Russia's Natural Resources Ministry said preliminary results on soil core samples gathered by the research ship Akademik Fyodorov earlier this year show that the 1,240-mile Lomonosov Ridge is part of Russia's shelf. It said more geological tests would be conducted, as well.
"Results of an analysis of the Earth's crust show that the structure of the underwater Lomonosov mountain chain is similar to the world's other continental shelves, and the ridge is therefore part of Russia's land mass," the ministry said.
The controversy heated up last month when Russia sent two small submarines to plant a tiny national flag under the North Pole. Canada vowed to increase its icebreaker fleet and build two new military facilities in the Arctic, while Denmark sent a team of scientists to seek evidence that the ridge was attached to its territory of Greenland.
A U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker also set off late last month for a research expedition, though the expedition's chief scientist said the trip had been planned well before the Russian move.
Growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice - opening up resource development and new shipping lanes - has added to the urgency of the claims.
The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea gives the Arctic countries 10 years after they ratify the treaty to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All but the United States have ratified the treaty, some of them several years ago.
Russia has presented evidence in the past on Arctic territories, but a U.N. commission has rejected them.