Fata Morgana Land

Fata Morgana Land
Reported location of Fata Morgana Land
Created by First reported by J.P. Koch and Aage Bertelsen
Type Phantom island
Notable locations Greenland Sea

Fata Morgana Land (Danish: Fata Morgana Landet) was a phantom island in the Arctic. It supposedly lay between north-east Greenland and Svalbard, at the northern end of the Greenland Sea.

History

In 1907, during the 1906–08 Danmark Expedition led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, J.P. Koch and Aage Bertelsen were reported to have been the first to sight land at around 80°00′N 10°00′W / 80.000°N 10.000°W / 80.000; -10.000. Land was also allegedly sighted near this location by Lauge Koch in 1933, from the air, as well as by Peter Freuchen in 1935 and by Ivan Papanin in 1937.[1] Following Papanin's sighting, Koch undertook a seaplane expedition from Svalbard in 1938 to search for the supposed island, but found no trace of it.[2]

The non-existent island was named Fata Morgana Land, after a type of mirage common in polar regions, on the assumption that the land reported sighted at its location was actually Fata Morganas of Tobias Island (Greenlandic: Tuppiap Qeqertaa),[3] a barren, rocky island to the south.[4] The position of Tobias Island, roughly 70 kilometres (43 mi) from the north-eastern coast of Greenland, was determined with accuracy only in 1993.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Catalogue of place names in northern East Greenland". Geological Survey of Denmark. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  2. ↑ Koch, L. 1940: Survey of North Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland 130(1), 364 pp.
  3. ↑ Andrews, Stefan (13 December 2017). "The explanation for sightings of the Flying Dutchman, and perhaps alien craft, could be Fata Morgana". The Vintage News. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  4. ↑ "Tuppiap Qeqertaa". Mapcarta. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Ole Bennike, Naja Mikkelsen & Rene Forsberg: "Tobias Ø" - Grønlands Selskab (Danish)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.