A group of Danish-Swiss scientists accidentally discovered a new island off the coast of Greenland, which, in their opinion, is the northernmost island in the world.
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| Northernmost Island Greenland |
In July, scientists flew to collect samples to the island of Oodaaq, known since 1978. But later they checked with the Danish official (Greenland is an autonomous Arctic territory belonging to Denmark), responsible for registering the Arctic islands, and found out that they were 800 meters north of their destination, writes the BBC.
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| Northernmost Island Greenland |
The island was discovered during a Danish-Swiss research expedition that I coordinated.
Morten Rush, scientific director of the Arctic Station in Greenland at Copenhagen University, told the BBC.
According to scientists, the 60x30 m island is the closest point on land to the North Pole.
Initially, a group of scientists planned to explore the island of Oodaaq (then the northernmost in Greenland) in order to find new species adapted to life in such an extreme environment. Six scientists reached the position of the island of Oodaaq, but could not find it (maps in this part of the world are not very accurate).
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| Northernmost Island Greenland |
We have just started looking for the island. After a few very exciting minutes, we landed on a strange, non-vegetative accumulation of mud, moraine deposits and gravel, surrounded on all sides by sea ice - not a very friendly place. After the expedition and many discussions with experts on this topic, we realized that we had accidentally discovered the northernmost island in the world.
said the scientific director of the station.
Now scientists want the island to be called Qeqertaq Avannarleq, which means "the northernmost island" in Greenlandic.