Denmark claims the North Pole

Monday, December 15, 2014, 9:35 AM - The three-way battle over who, exactly, owns the North Pole is set to heat up this week.

Denmark is expected to submit a formal claim to the U.N. body overseeing continental shelf limits on Monday. 

Although nowhere near the Arctic, Denmark controls the island of Greenland as a possession with substantial home rule, and the frigid island is the linchpin for the country's aspirations in the region.

Specifically, the Danes say scientific evidence proves the sub-sea Lomonosov Ridge is a natural extension of Greenland, giving the country a claim to the area.

"After the U.N. panel had taken a decision based on scientific data, comes a political process," Denmark's foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard told The Associated Press Friday. "I expect this to take some time. An answer will come in a few decades."

Denmark sent a team to survey the ridge as part of a potential claim in 2004.

Of course, control of the pole isn't about bragging rights - one geophysicist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland referred to it as "a tiny, tiny abstract spot [that] lies in the area."

Rather, it's about control of sub-sea resources like oil and natural gas, and that's what's driving the Canadian and Russian claims to the area also. The region is believed to contain 13 per cent of the world's untapped oil reserves, along with 30 per cent of global natural gas reserves, according to the Independent.

Russia made a claim to part of the region in 2001, and actually sent an expedition to survey the area and plant a flag on the seabed beneath the north pole (although their icebreaker ran into problems).

Canada also has a stake, and announced last December that it would make a claim that would include the North Pole, although the National Post reported that it hadn't begun mapping the region thoroughly at that time.

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