2017 an international team of geologists came to explore including some from germany's federal institute for geosciences and natural resources they were here to study the region they wanted to know what natural resources can be found in the arctic and where they're located in this previously untouched landscape. of any possible extraction of resources in the arctic would be taking place in a very fragile ecosystem 2nd beating interest must be weighed very carefully natural resources on the one hand the environment on the other the best basis for doing that is solid scientific data. across the arctic ice cover is shrinking at an alarming rate and that rate is speeding up greenland has been losing ice at a rate of about $250000000000.00 metric tons a year ice melt means rising sea levels potentially threatening the very future of humankind but in the meantime ice free land and navigation routes in the arctic mean access to resources is becoming easier 5 nations border the arctic ocean the united states canada greenland which is part of denmark norway and russia. much of the ocean is covered in sea ice. ru