Continental Shelving

Wired article

In 1945, to tap newly reachable offshore oil resources, President Harry Truman unilaterally proclaimed that the US boundary was henceforth extended to its continental shelf. The pronouncement prompted other countries to take similar stands and inevitably led to more than a little confusion about what exactly constituted a continental shelf. Four decades later, the UN created the Law of the Sea treaty and defined the term more precisely. Countries were given 10 years after ratification to submit maps to the UN with their proposed boundaries — a deadline fast approaching for many nations.