14.05.2008 - Using research to define boundaries
Researchers from the Department of Earth Science at the University of Bergen, a number of whom are now associated with CGB, have been working marine geology and geophysical questions in the Norwegian and Polar seas for years.
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While some of this research has resulted in a mapping of sea floor resources, much has been basic geological exploration that now is becoming relevant to current international debates concerning extensions of nationally exclusive economic zones beyond the current 200 nautical miles from the coast.
Pedersen’s presentation to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf forms part of a Norwegian initiative to define areas in the Norwegian and Polar Seas (but beyond the 200 mile limit) as being important to Norwegian national interests.
Pedersen explains that it is critical to have strong geological arguments to justify the petition. He mentioned the work of Vibeke Bruvoll who is now following up her Master’s project with PhD studies. Bruvoll has been working as a geological advisor for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry over this question. The need for further studies and on-going research efforts in this area was one of the main arguments behind the Norwegian government’s recent decision to begin to plan to build a new state-of-the-art ice-going research vessel to protect Norwegian interests in the polar seas.
Research efforts at CGB are also contributing important geological and biological results to the Norwegian petition. This summer CGB returns again aboard the RV G.O.Sars to the region over the northerly portion of the mid-Atlantic Ridge. For over a month CGB researchers will continue their studies of hydrothermal activity and further their basic understanding of the geology of this unique portion of the deep sea.
