All-round exploration of the arctic zone is among the priorities of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS): our country owes nearly half of this mineralrich territory and, what with the global climate warming trend, holding out good prospects for transportation between Europe, Asia and America. To keep the arctic exploration up to the mark, we should invest without stint, and restore the erstwhile network of polar stations cum infrastructure. We are moving this way at the initiative, and with the active participation of the RAS Siberian Branch. Fundamental studies into the evolution of the natural environment and lithosphere of the arctic regions-studies carried out by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS SB)--are playing a tangible role in economic and geopolitical problem solving. Among other things, our scientists are out to prove that the territory of the Siberian arctic shelf and the region of central arctic rises, the Lomonosov and Mendeleyev ridges including, were a single continent in the relatively recent geological past with a common evolutionary background.* In keeping with law of nations our findings on central arctic rises lying beyond the two-hundred-mile * See: Yu. Leonov, "Studies of Arctic Regions Go On", Science in Russia, No. 3, 2008.--Ed. economic zone of Russia* might set the stage for recognizing the status of this territory as one of predominantly Russian interests. Almost ten years ago, in 2003, a UN commission turned down this Russian claim out of hand, without any substantive justification. The new document is being filed by the RAS Research-and-Coordination Council and the Federal Agency for Mineral Wealth Uses (ROSNEDRA). Representing the RAS Siberian Branch in this work are Acad. Nikolai Dobretsov and Valery Vernikovsky, RAS corresponding member. In this connection experts should supply exact data on sea floor relief features, plot geographical profiles and mark off a boundary stretchin ... Читать далее