The North Pole or as it could also be known as The Top of World, has always been a bit of a contentious subject with most of the powerful nations in the world, but despite several claims of ownership the ice covered sea has never been actually adopted by any country, that is until now.

Once again Russia will lay claim to part of the area. This has come about because their geologists think that they may have found a link between Russia and the area known as the North Pole. This link is a geological feature on the sea bed, the Lomonosov Ridge that is said to physically link the Russian mainland and 460,000 square miles of sea bed. This includes the North Pole!

The Russians are that serious about this that they are dispatching a Submarine, which will be planting a flag on the sea, bed around 14,000 feet below the North Pole. This is not the first time that Russia has claimed the area, back in 2001 the UN turned down another claim.

However they do appear to be pretty serious about this claim, with the expedition to plant the flag. Apparently the area has some serious oil reserves, but that couldn’t be the reason, could it?

Source [Tree Hugger]