Danish scientist Rene Forsberg has claimed that what was long thought to be the world’s northernmost island turned out to be not an island, but an iceberg covered in dirt and gravel, according to statements to the DPA agency.
Danish and Swiss scientists discovered the iceberg, which they believed to be an island, north of Greenland last year. Now it has been discovered that there is water under it.
Forsberg has indicated that none of all the alleged islands found since 1978 turned out to be a true island.
In 2022, a Swiss-Danish team named the alleged island — which measured 30 by 60 meters — Qeqertaq Avannarleq, which means “northernmost island” in Greenlandic, and which is located about 800 meters from the island of Oodaaq. Oodaaq’s status as an island is now also in question.
The follow-up expedition ‘Leister Go North’ 2022 has visited in August this year the positions where small islands have been recorded over the years.
“We wanted to check once and for all if the coordinates were correct and if they were real islands. We found out that they are not,” Forsberg told the Danish portal Videnskab.dk.
“Nobody had done that before, since the area is permanently covered by two or three meters of sea ice,” added the scientist.
Source: Europa Press
