New trade routes and untapped mineral deposits are just a couple things being revealed by the ever-thinning ice in an increasingly warm Arctic. This year alone nearly 400 ships passed through Russia’s exposed Northern Sea Route, an Arctic waterway along the country’s northern coast, and that number is expected to grow substantially in the coming years.

Eight countries – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States – currently have a stake in the Arctic. Those eight nations have created an Arctic Council to coordinate policies surrounding the new territory. However, political tensions are beginning to rise over concerns of passage rights through the newly opening icy waters, and the fact that the United States has yet to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea is complicating some negotiations.