The United States has expanded its claims to the resource-rich ocean floor and continental shelf in the Arctic, which is twice the size of California. In this way, Washington is trying to preserve mineral reserves that are crucial for the development of future technologies, states Bloomberg. The so-called “extended continental shelf” covers about 1 million square kilometers (386,100 square miles), mostly in the Arctic and Bering Sea, a strategic area also claimed by Canada and Russia. In addition, the United States has outlined shelf boundaries in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico. The…