#greenland

World's Northernmost Island Discovered due to GPS ErrorIs it possible that there are still undiscovered places on our planet?After traveling there by mistake, a group of Danish researchers claimed to have discovered the world's northernmost island, which lies a kilometer away from Greenland. In July, the party was scheduled to collect scientific bacteria samples on the island of Oodag, but they ended up in the wrong location.It was only a month after they returned that they realized they had taken the wrong samples, that their GPS had failed, and that they had discovered a new Island. They plan to call the island “Qeqertaq Avannarleq” (Greenlandic for “northernmost island”), and it is estimated to be 30 by 60 meters in size, with moraine, gravel, and marine mud that could have accumulatedafter a violent storm.Morten Rasch, the expedition's leader, and a geographer at the University of Copenhagen, wrote to Motherboard in an email. “We weren't looking for new islands. That was not among the expedition's scientific goals.” And even though they have discovered it, they are uninterested in the new island. They went there to collect scientific samples of the bacteria in the neighborhood.Images by: Julian Charriere and Henrik Lassen#Northernmost #Island #Greenland #Discovery 

6 Mysterious Structures Hidden Beneath the Greenland Ice SheetYou recall the old joke about place names: Iceland is nice and green, but Greenland is covered with ice. Specifically an ice sheet 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) thick. You might wonder what, exactly, is underneath all that ice. Thanks to radar technology, we are getting an idea, and it appears the geography of Greenland is quite varied. For example, it contains the longest canyon in the world! Discovered in 2013, the canyon stretches 460 miles (740 kilometers) from the highest point in central Greenland to Petermann Glacier on the northwest coast. That's significantly longer than China's 308-mile-long (496 km) Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, the longest canyon on the planet that you can actually see. The canyon plunges up to 2,600 feet (800 m) deep in places and is 6 miles (10 km) wide. For comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona averages about 1 mile (1.6 km) deep and 10 miles (16 km) across. Parts of the canyon may route meltwater from beneath the ice sheet to the sea. It probably formed before the ice sheet and was once the channel for a mighty river. There are also mountains, huge freshwater lakes, meteor craters, fossils, and more! Learn the secrets Greenland is keeping on ice (for the moment) at Space.com. -via Damn Interesting (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/ Cynthia Starr)#Greenland #icesheet #glacier #geography

Scientists Discover World’s Northernmost IslandDespite what you've heard about Santa Claus, the North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. The only reason explorers could walk to it is because it used to be covered with ice most of the time. That raises the question of what landform is the closest to the pole, and the answer is a newly-discovered small island off the coast of Greenland. Once buried in ice, it was spotted last month by researchers who were collecting samples. They did not realize it was the world's northernmost island until they checked their latitude calculations later.The small island, measuring roughly 30 metres (100ft) across and a peak of about 3 metres, consists of seabed mud as well as moraine – soil and rock left behind by moving glaciers. The team said they would recommend it is named “Qeqertaq Avannarleq”, which means “the northernmost island” in Greenlandic.Several US expeditions in the area have in recent decades searched for the world’s northernmost island. In 2007, Arctic veteran Dennis Schmitt discovered a similar island close by.The scientists said that although the new island was exposed by shifting pack ice, its appearance now was not a direct consequence of global warming, which has been shrinking Greenland’s ice sheet.Say it with me now- “Qeqertaq Avannarleq.” Before officially declaring it an island, geographers must observe whether it stays above the surface at high tide. Read more about the discovery at The Guardian. -via Damn Interesting#Arctic #island #latitude #Greenland