RTOW2001

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RTOW2001
Waters Arctic Ocean
Geographical location 83 ° 41 ′  N , 30 ° 46 ′  W Coordinates: 83 ° 41 ′  N , 30 ° 46 ′  W
RTOW2001 (Greenland)
RTOW2001
Residents uninhabited

RTOW2001 is a tiny island in the Arctic Ocean north of the island of Greenland .

location and size

RTOW2001 is located approximately 15 miles east of Cape Morris Jesup , the northernmost point of Greenland, and approximately 11.5 kilometers west of Kaffeklubben Island . The smallest island is only a few meters wide.

RTOW2001 is about 702.2 km from the North Pole and is therefore about 965 meters closer to the northernmost point on earth than the island ATOW1996 .

Discovery and naming

RTOW2001 was discovered as part of the Return to the Top of the World expedition led by Ken Zerbst and John Jancik in 2001 . The land area was noticed during an overflight. As far as is known, this is the only evidence of the island's existence so far.

The name is derived from the abbreviation of the expedition and the year of the discovery.

Recognition as land area

In order to be recognized as a land area, it is necessary that the area concerned rises permanently out of the water - even at high tide. RTOW2001 is only very small, rises only slightly from the water and almost nothing is known about the nature of the surface. It is therefore questionable (as of August 2007) whether this point is to be regarded as a permanent elevation from the sea or whether it is just a non-permanent sandbank .

Status of RTOW2001 as the northernmost land area on earth

Whether RTOW2001 can be considered the northernmost land area on earth depends on the following circumstances:

  1. Only if RTOW2001 is to be regarded as a permanent survey can it be regarded as the northernmost land area. However, this property has not yet been proven.
  2. On July 6, 2003, an American expedition found a 35 meter long rock and gravel bank at 83 ° 42 '05.2 "N and 30 ° 38' 49.4" W. This point is about 1.83 kilometers further north than RTOW2001 . The area was given the (unofficial) designation 83-42 by the expedition participants (based on the latitude) and is also called Schmitt's Island . If 83-42 proves permanent, this island is the northernmost land area on earth. An expedition from 2008 would speak against this: On January 3, 2009, a program of the German TV station NDR broadcast a report according to which the land point from 2003 could no longer be found, but a new land point ( Ultima Thule 2008 ) at 83 ° 41 '  N , 31 ° 6'  W has been detected.

Should neither RTOW2001 nor 83-42 be a permanent land area, ATOW1996 would be regarded as the northernmost land area on earth.

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