[4] A Canadian scientific expedition, based out of Alert on Ellesmere Island, established an ice camp on 22 March 1979.

[5] In the 2000s, the geological structure of the ridge attracted international attention due to a 20 December 2001 official submission by the Russian Federation to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (article 76, paragraph 8).

[6] The territory claimed by Russia in the submission is a large portion of the Arctic reaching the North Pole.

In April 2007, Canadian and Russian scientists were sent to map the ridge as a possible precedent for determining sovereignty over the area.

[17] In late July 2007, a Russian expedition sent an icebreaker and two mini-submarines, Mir-I and Mir-II, to explore the region.

[20]In 2014 Denmark filed a claim with the UN Commission for a 895,000 square kilometres (346,000 sq mi) area around the Lomonosov Ridge,[9] using paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of Article 76.

[21][22] The connection between Greenland and Lomonosov is stated as going through the Lincoln shelf (400 metres or 1,300 feet below the Lincoln Sea, between the Wandel Sea in the east and Cape Columbia, Canada in the west), which was pushed up when Greenland moved northwards during the late Paleozoic, Paleocene and Eocene time frames.