August 1
Moscow - A Russian expedition aiming to claim vast swaths of the Arctic Ocean seabed reached the North Pole on Wednesday, and scientists immediately began preparing to send two mini-submarines under the ice to mark the sea floor with a Russian flag.

For the first time in history, people will go down to the sea bed under the North Pole. It's like putting a flag on the moon.

The voyage has some scientific goals, including the study of Arctic plants and animals. But its chief goal appears to be advancing Russia's political and economic influence by strengthening its legal claims to the huge gas and oil deposits thought to lie beneath the Arctic sea floor.

In the next few hours, Russian scientists hope to dive in two mini-submarines to a depth of more than 13,200 feet, and drop a metal capsule carrying the Russian flag onto the sea bed. The dive was to start Thursday morning and last several hours. Each submarine will carry three people.

The symbolic gesture, along with geologic data being gathered by expedition scientists, is intended to prop up Moscow's claims to more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf which, by some estimates, may contain 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits.

The subs will also collect specimens of Arctic plants and animals and videotape the dives.

The biggest challenge, scientists say, will be for the mini-sub crews to return to their original point of departure to avoid being trapped under a thick crust of ice.
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and to think the people on this site would have us believe that the earth is hollow and there is no north pole.

I thought all nation's agreed that the poles couldn't be claimed. I could be wrong, but I remeber hearing something like that in school.

Me too, but the Russians are claiming their continent reaches that far, thus the new found oil deposits are theirs - Thus having the western world in their control.

so our we doomed?

Interesting, interesting...

BRB, I'm going to go and claim Antarctica.

The Russians were also the first to reach outer space. Does that give them a legitimate claim to the Universe, as well??