[HN Gopher] New Norwegian land could emerge from The Atlantic Ocean
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       New Norwegian land could emerge from The Atlantic Ocean
        
       Author : LastNevadan
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2023-01-18 18:04 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sciencenorway.no)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sciencenorway.no)
        
       | simonebrunozzi wrote:
       | Hmm... A new micronation?
        
       | effnorwood wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | sacrosancty wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | api wrote:
       | This headline instantly conjured up an image of Norwegian black
       | metal bands thrashing away as a black basalt island rises slowly
       | out of the abyss with smoke and fire and lightning...
        
         | 2000UltraDeluxe wrote:
         | I'd buy that album!
        
       | alex_suzuki wrote:
       | That photo of the Beerenberg volcano in the first part of the
       | article is stunning.
        
       | dubcanada wrote:
       | How would this work? If suddenly a brand new island appeared, who
       | owns it? Assuming it's off Norways coast, Norway owns it. But
       | what happens if it's between two country coasts or nobodies?
        
         | peteradio wrote:
         | It's actually covered under the universal dibs clause. Dibs!
        
         | mattficke wrote:
         | If it's within 200 miles of land, there's established protocol
         | under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea[0] to demarcate
         | maritime boundaries based on land borders. If the border went
         | through the island there would need to be some sort of treaty
         | negotiation to establish sovereignty.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on...
        
           | midasuni wrote:
           | So asssume there's a 20 mile gap between, and the island
           | appears 18 miles of country A's coast, clearly it's part of
           | country A.
           | 
           | Is the new maritime border still at the 20 mile mark or is it
           | equidistant between the new island, 11 miles off shore and 11
           | miles from country B.
           | 
           | But there great swathes of habitable land where we can't
           | agree globally on what country it is, so as usual it comes to
           | down diplomacy.
        
             | mattficke wrote:
             | The short version is that overlapping maritime borders are
             | resolved by drawing the various buffer zones out from the
             | shoreline of all coastal land of each country, and where
             | they conflict take the approximate midpoint of the
             | overlapping area as the border.
             | 
             | Small islands can therefore have an outsized impact on
             | extending the territorial waters of a country, which is why
             | there are so many territorial disputes over seemingly-
             | insignificant uninhabited islands.
             | 
             | There's not always an unambiguous resolution to competing
             | claims, see for example:
             | 
             | - China's "nine-dash line"
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line
             | 
             | - The Israeli-Lebanese maritime border dispute (which was
             | only resolved last year) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra
             | eli%E2%80%93Lebanese_marit...
        
       | slicktux wrote:
       | Have not read it...but is it due to isostatic rebound?
        
         | bell-cot wrote:
         | That was my first thought, too. But instead it's just-barely-
         | submarine volcanoes on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
        
         | jofer wrote:
         | The article is actually talking about volcanic activity
         | building things up. I.e. active volcanoes building up relative
         | to the seafloor immediately around them.
         | 
         | Isostatic rebound is also occurring for the overall area,
         | though. It's just a smaller effect (millimeters to centimeters
         | per year) vs the meters to hundreds of meters that can occur
         | from an eruption.
         | 
         | (For those who don't know, isostatic rebound is occurring for
         | large areas where the ice sheets were very thick during the
         | last ice age. The lithosphere (rigid portion of the earth)
         | "flexed" downward as a result, and it's currently still flexing
         | back now that the ice is gone. The mantle has a very high
         | viscosity, though, and needs to "flow" into the space as the
         | lithosphere flexes back. That means it's a process that takes
         | tens of thousands of years to equalize. "Flow" is in quotes,
         | because most folks don't think of solids flowing. The mantle is
         | solid rock, but solid rock does flow.)
        
       | bell-cot wrote:
       | Article's subtitle: "Many active volcanoes can be found on the
       | seabed within Norway's maritime borders. Some are now only a few
       | metres below sea level. "
       | 
       | The first para mentions that it's west of Jan Mayen (
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Mayen ).
       | 
       | So - not exactly high-value real estate. Even before you factor
       | in the lush "above 70 degrees north, on the edge of the Greenland
       | Sea" climate.
        
         | hadlock wrote:
         | China's made an entire business of expanding their territory by
         | putting airfields on top of half-underwater islands. The
         | Spratlys are horseshoe shaped atolls but have proven it can be
         | done effectively and defensibly.
         | (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/21/china-has-
         | full...) You also get a ~200 mile EEZ for fishing and mineral
         | rights, and a 6-12 mile territorial waters in the area as well.
         | Portugal has been working on staking out an enormous chunk of
         | the north atlantic for the last decade or so using similar
         | strategy.
        
           | spookie wrote:
           | Portugal has a ton of actual islands though
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | jcranmer wrote:
           | > You also get a ~200 mile EEZ for fishing and mineral
           | rights, and a 6-12 mile territorial waters in the area as
           | well.
           | 
           | You _don 't_ get those for artificial lands or for
           | insufficiently substantial islands. And an international
           | arbitration under UNCLOS already ruled against Chinese claims
           | in this regard.
        
           | bell-cot wrote:
           | What China - a superpower with a very confrontational and
           | combative attitude - can get away with in its own back yard
           | _might_ be quite different from what modest little Norway can
           | or would try to do in the Greenland Sea.
           | 
           | Also, talk to a few volcanologists and marine engineers about
           | trying to build airfields on the tops of barely-above water
           | active volcanoes. (Vs. China is building on shallow, solid,
           | inactive atolls.)
        
             | klyrs wrote:
             | > Also, talk to a few volcanologists and marine engineers
             | about trying to build airfields on the tops of barely-above
             | water active volcanoes.
             | 
             | Discount plane parking/moorage/incineration?
        
             | zardo wrote:
             | And Norway has plenty of EEZ, China is short on it.
        
             | mytailorisrich wrote:
             | I think we need to understand that China is not
             | "confrontational and combative" in a negative way.
             | 
             | Think of it more like the kid who's been bullied for years
             | and years and when puberty hits is finally able to stand
             | his ground. That's China, and they're not the only ones who
             | have been bullied over the last centuries and who may be
             | able to stand their ground soon.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | The nine dash line is not at all standing their ground.
        
               | BurningFrog wrote:
               | Those kids often _are_ the worst bullies!
        
               | karatinversion wrote:
               | Disagree. The Spratly island shenanigans, in particular,
               | are squarely aimed at Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines
               | and Vietnam, which in your analogy are the smaller,
               | younger victims of the bullies.
        
               | mytailorisrich wrote:
               | China has been claiming the South China Sea since before
               | the PRC, hence why the claims by the ROC/Taiwan are same:
               | the PRC took over the ROC's claims. Of course this is not
               | the 'correct' narrative to say that...
               | 
               | Every country has been acting the same. Look at what the
               | US control and ask why that is. The difference is that
               | China has been on the receiving end of the stick over the
               | last centuries while the US (for instance) has been on
               | the giving end. There is no right and wrong, just being
               | weak or being strong.
        
               | sklargh wrote:
               | "Since you know as well as we do the right, as the world
               | goes, is only in question between equal power, while the
               | strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they
               | must"
               | 
               | https://www.nku.edu/~weirk/ir/melian.html
        
               | mytailorisrich wrote:
               | Well, exactly.
               | 
               | Some of the replies I get are childish and ridiculous.
               | The US control land almost up to the Chinese coast bit
               | China is the bully for finally being able to assert a few
               | claims in the South China Sea... how far can hypocrisy go
               | 
               | As for the neighbours' input, we'll ask Mexico, Cuba, and
               | South America...
        
               | adolph wrote:
               | > There is no right and wrong, just being weak or being
               | strong.
               | 
               | Just six comments deep from random coastal volcano and we
               | are already at the Nietzschian ubermensch, that escalated
               | quickly!
               | 
               | In the larger picture, let us all consider the logical
               | fallacy of _tu quoque_. A counter-claim that  "you do it
               | too" does not refute the original claim.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | drblastoff wrote:
               | You're conveniently ignoring a couple thousand years
               | where China bullied its neighbors relentlessly.
        
         | scheme271 wrote:
         | It might be really high value if it gives Norway claims to much
         | more area and a larger exclusive economic zone in the Atlantic.
        
           | bell-cot wrote:
           | _Maybe_. If the peak of an active volcano or few actually
           | counts for your EEZ. If the peak doesn 't blow up or get
           | washed away before it's been there long enough to count.
           | IANAL. If/how/when EEZ's change, when a sliver of new land
           | pops up, strikes me as a pretty rare & special legal
           | specialty.
        
       | 11235813213455 wrote:
       | meanwhile sea is gaining space with global warming
        
         | Arnt wrote:
         | Nor in/near Norway.
         | 
         | Greenland is melting, which changes the earth's centre of
         | gravity, which in turn leads the area around Greenland (all the
         | way to Norway) to rise. Iceland, Baffin Island and some other
         | islands near Greenland rise decisively more than the ocean,
         | mainland Norway perhaps a bit more. This volcano near Jan Mayen
         | might get a 10m boost over the next 200 years.
        
           | hanoz wrote:
           | How does the earth's centre of gravity changing cause land to
           | rise?
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-18 23:00 UTC)