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In July , a group of scientists by chance found themselves on a tiny island in northernGreenlandmade up of mound of silt and crushed rock .
The expeditioners thought they had traveled to the island of Oodaaq , the northmost island in Greenland — but they were really digest on a previously strange island that was even further due north , likely making it the close piece of ground to theNorth Pole .
The newly discovered island is extremely small, and will likely not be around for a long time.
" We were convince that we were standing on Oodaaq Island , which until then had been registered as the world ’s northmost island , " dispatch drawing card Morten Rasch , a senior consultant at the University of Copenhagen ’s Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management , articulate in a statement .
" But when I posted photos and the island ’s co-ordinate on societal medium , a telephone number of American island hunter went crazy and say that it could n’t be genuine . " ( Island hunters , as their name suggests , seek to discover unknown islands for play ) .
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The island is about 2,560 feet ( 780 meters ) due north of Oodaaq and is a bare 98 foot ( 30 m ) wide-cut and 197 feet ( 60 m ) long , or smaller than an American football game playing field , agree to the statement . The island stand 10 to 13 invertebrate foot ( 3 to 4 G ) above sea degree , and is made up of small hill of seabed clay and moraine , or soil and rock get out behind by glaciers , Rasch said .
The small island , which is technically an expansion of the district of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark , may have imprint by a powerful tempest that , along with the ocean , push these different materials from the seabed together , accord to the statement .
But the island might go away soon , and in all probability could be categorized as a shortly - lived islet , according to the statement . " No one knows how long it will remain . In rationale , it could disappear as soon as a brawny unexampled tempest hits , " Rasch said .
Originally release on Live Science .