ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï helps define extended continental shelf
CIRES researchers help map one million square kilometers of new U.S. seafloor in historic project
The United States has established sovereign rights over an additional one million square kilometers of seafloor, thanks to a government-led project that included a team of ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï researchers.
The was a collaborative, multi-agency effort to map and define the boundaries of the country’s extended continental shelf (ECS)—the portion of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast.
What is a continental shelf?
In geologic terms, continental shelves are the edges of continents that are submerged under the ocean. In legal terms, the continental shelf is the extension of a country’s land territory under the sea.
Besides adding a million square kilometers of seafloor to the U.S.—an area roughly twice the size of