A group of researchers who went out to collect samples off the coast of Greenland in July found themselves on a tiny, uninhabited and previously unknown island.

Qeqertaq Avannarleq

• Measuring 60×30 metres and with a peak of three metres above sea level, it has now become the new northernmost piece of land on Earth.
• Before this, Oodaaq was marked as the Earth’s northernmost terrain.
• The new island is made up of seabed mud and moraine, i.e. soil, rock and other material left behind by moving glaciers, and has no vegetation.
• The group has suggested the discovery be named ‘Qeqertaq Avannarleq’, which is Greenlandic for “the northernmost island”.

How this island came to existence?

Ans. Undoubtedly, climate change in Greenland

• Global warming has had a severe effect on the ice sheet of Greenland.
• The new island, which was exposed by shifting pack ice, is, however, not a direct consequence of climate change.

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