U.S. Expands Seabed Territory by One Million Square Kilometers, Securing Trillions in Resources
The United States has expanded its territorial claims by one million square kilometers of seabed, as announced by the State Department in December 2023. This expansion, which does not involve new land above water, extends the U.S. continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast, known as the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS). The newly claimed area spans seven offshore regions, including the Arctic, Atlantic coast, Bering Sea, Pacific coast, Mariana Islands, and the Gulf of Mexico. This move was facilitated by a 20-year mapping project, the largest of its kind undertaken by the U.S., which involved collecting geological data to define ECS limits. Despite not ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the U.S. used its guidelines to establish these claims, bypassing the need for UN commission review. 
