While on an expedition to collect samples from northern Greenland, a team of Arctic researchers from Denmark landed their helicopter on a small island off the coast of mainland Greenland. They didn’t think much of it at first. It was just “one of a hundred sites” the team visited, in the words of the expedition leader Morten Rasch.
However, the significance of this seemingly ordinary stop soon became clear. It turned out this wasn’t Oodaq Island as the team initially thought, but a previously undocumented island that now bears the title of the northernmost landmass in the world.
The newly discovered island isn’t large; it’s about 100 by 150 feet and about 10 to 13 feet above sea level. The interesting question is how did it go undetected until now?
Scientists theorize that the unnamed island might have been covered by pack ice or that it’s only been recently formed by storm events. Moreover, the island is so remote, it’s no wonder no one stumbled upon it before.
Visiting Greenland, in general, is definitely an experience of a lifetime—remarkable landscapes, exceptional wildlife, and iceberg choked fjords make Grenland a destination unlike any other.
