Scientists on Greenland expedition say they have discovered tiny island that is ‘world’s northernmost’

The scientists initially thought they had arrived at Oodaaq, an island discovered by a Danish team in 1978

On checking the exact location, they realised they had visited another island 780 metres northwest

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An undated handout image with a view of a tiny island off the coast of Greenland that scientists on an expedition say is the world's northernmost point of land. Photo: Julian Charriere/Reuters

Published: 3:23am, 28 Aug 2021Updated: 8:57am, 28 Aug 2021

Scientists last month set foot on a tiny island off the coast of Greenland that they say is the world’s northernmost point of land and was revealed by shifting pack ice.

The discovery comes as a battle is looming among Arctic nations, the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway for control of the North Pole some 700 kilometres to the north and of the surrounding seabed, fishing rights and shipping routes exposed by ice melting because of climate change.

An undated handout image with a view of the tiny island, which measures about 30 metres across and a peak of about three metres. Photo: Julian Charriere/Reuters

“It was not our intention to discover a new island,” Morten Rasch, polar explorer and head of the Arctic Station research facility in Greenland, told Reuters. “We just went there to collect samples.”

The scientists initially thought they had arrived at Oodaaq, an island discovered by a Danish survey team in 1978. Only later, when checking the exact location, they realised they had visited another island 780 metres northwest.

“Everybody was happy that we found what we thought was Oodaaq island,” said Swiss entrepreneur Christiane Leister, creator of the Leister Foundation, which financed the expedition.

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