The U.S. added the final State to the Union, Hawaii, in 1959. However, at the start of 2024, the U.S. came 386,000 square Miles Larger than it's ever been before.
It’s not an additional State that added mileage, but a shift in Geographic Coordinates, that annexed thousands of miles of extended Underwater Continental Shelf.
In order to fully understand this additional Land Mass, it’s First vital to know what the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) actually is.
Around every Mass of Land lies Underwater Land, known as the Continental Shelf, this leads to the Continental Slope, and eventually the Seafloor. The ECS is the area Past the Continental Shelf, before the Ocean Floor begins.
According to the Law of the Sea Convention, or the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) from 1982, ECS belongs to the Country on which they Extend.
The idea behind this Law, was to ensure the Oceans directly surrounding the Continents, were Protected for both Natural and Cultural resources.
Although it may be surprising, the U.S.' largest ECS holding is in the Arctic around Alaska and within the Bering Strait.
However, this area sits so closely to Russia’s Easternmost Shorelines, that there has been a Decades-long Debate, as to where each Country’s ECS Bborders actually lie.
The U.S., with the help of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has been collecting Data within the Bering Strait since 2003.
The NOAA reportedly used “bathymetric, sub bottom, gravity, magnetic, seismic, and geologic sample data” to create a Detailed Map of the Continental Shelves, Slopes, Canyons, and the ECS around the entire Country, and this is the extra 386,000 square Miles Results.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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