The organizations’ representatives are now conducting a joint expedition to the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
The geographical discovery belongs to the RiskSat project group, which consists of eight schoolchildren from St. Petersburg, Venev, Dedovsk, Gatchina, Troitsk, Tula and Yakutsk under the guidance of the candidate of technical sciences, associate professor of RUDN University Alexey Kucheiko. The young geographers made their find when they processed images from satellites.
According to the satellite monitoring, the island emerged on July 9 as a result of the collapse of an ice bridge connecting the Northern Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago with the retreating Vilkitsky South Glacier. The object is going to be put onto the nautical charts.
“The dimensions of the new island are 410 by 200 meters, the area is 5.6 hectares, the height, together with the remaining ice cover, reaches 27 meters. The coordinates of the center are 75°33’50.89″north latitude, 58°18’14.76″ east longitude”, the Russian Geographical Society said in a statement.
It is also reported that earlier the school group had already discovered islands in the Novaya Zemlya area using satellite images. In 2016, the schoolchildren discovered an island near the Vize glacier, and in 2017 – near the Vilkitsky South glacier. In 2019, the young explorers also discovered an island in the Schmidt Island region of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago.
Text: Mikhail Tuaev Photo: Mikhail Flint, Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet
