Give a stretch to its underwater borders west of Galicia

Spain is about to give A considerable stretch north. One, yes, that will only be appreciated under water or in the offices. After Years of workmeetings and oceanographic campaigns, Spain is about to ensure that its underwater borders west of Galicia are extended by 38,500 square kilometers, an extension that will be added to The already achieved A long time ago in the Cantabrian. This has just ratified the UN at a meeting with Spanish delegates. For the final seen we will still have to wait a few months.

Maybe bureaucracy sounds, but extending underwater limits beyond 200 nautical miles (just over 300 km) is much more interesting than it seems.

What happened? That Galicia prepares to give A small stretch. And with it the whole country. Of course, the border extension will not be visible, nor will Spain redraw the silhouette we usually see in the maps. The reason is simple. What will really be expanded is the continental platform, the underwater border located west of Galicia. There is still the final OK for change, which is expected for August, but for the moment the United Nations already It has ratified it.

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Who has announced it? The news was advanced on the weekend Vigo lighthousewhich has echoed in turn of the information that He has been publishing In networks the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) and Luis Somozainvestigator of the institution and scientific coordinator of the expansion of the continental platform of Galicia.

The reason? The Redibration of the underwater borders of Galicia It was these days In New York, where a Spanish delegation was transferred. There the UN It has ratified The expansion of the continental platform north of the Bank of Galicia. Of course, the newspaper specifies that the final approval will not arrive for a few months, in August.

And how much will it be expanded? A good pinch, as Luis Somoza himself recognized Thursday after the meeting held in New York. “We have secured an extension of 38,000 km2 beyond 200 miles,” revealed in x. To better learn the geology of that huge plain, which exceeds 5,000 m deep, at the end of May a new scientific campaign will be undertaken with the Sarmiento de Gamboa ship.

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Is it something new? The advances do. The background struggle to widen underwater borders no. In August 2006 Spain He already presented A proposal to expand the domain of the continental platform in the Cantabrian, an aspiration that achieved a key advance in March 2009, when the New York commission gave the green light to the extension of the legal title of Spain of some some 78,000 km2 in the area.

In the case of Galicia, in 2009 Spain looked at the outer limits of the continental platform beyond 200 marine miles. On the surface, that would mean adding about 50,000 km2 under Spanish sovereignty. Apart from Galicia and Cantabria, Spain was interested in a third point: the Canary Islands, more specifically an extension of 206,000 km2 to the Oste of the Islands. If the three ambitioned regions (Cantabrian, Galicia and the Canary Islands are added) they would go from 330,000 km.

And based on what? The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which includes the scientific criteria that allow the limits of the sovereignty of a country over the seabed to go beyond the 200 nautical miles. In 2010 Spain presented Before the UN precisely that, the scientific evidence that would endorse the aspirations of the underwater borders in Galicia.

Spain is not the only one immersed in such a process. In 2010 The country I pointed That the attractiveness of the platforms, rich in gas and mineral deposits, among other resources, had aroused the interest of other tens of nations with coast. Specifically, he spoke of 51 countries that had moved to achieve their continental slopes.

Why is it important? The area that is now in the focus, west of Galicia, has depths of between 800 and more than 5,000 my the objective of geologists is to achieve a more detailed cartography to know it better. The data will be presented at the UN with a view to the August appointment in which, As progress Lighthouseit is expected to put the final touch to more than a decade of work to expand underwater borders. The objective: “shield” its preservation and allow Spain to explore and exploit its resources.

Images | Gregorio Puga Bailón (Flickr)

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