The island, located in the island group of Frans Josef Land, has disappeared from satellite images.
Walruses on Heiss Island in the archipelago of Franz Josef Land. Illustration picture. Nikolai Gernet. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Russian island of Mesyatseva in the Arctic Ocean has disappeared, says the Russian Geographical Society on its website.
The lost island was located in the Arkangel region near the island of Jeva-Liv.
According to researchers, Mesyatseva Island was formed from the peninsula of the same name when the glaciers in the area began to melt. The melting of the glaciers caused the sea level to rise, which gradually separated the peninsula from the island of Jeva-Liv, turning it into an independent island.
Satellite measurements have shown that the separation took place already before 1995.
As recently as 2015, the island’s surface area was 53 hectares, but in August 2024 it will be only about three hectares. In mid-September, it finally disappeared from the pictures.
Mesyatseva’s disappearance was noticed by a group of students studying the consequences of climate change in Russia’s arctic zone.
Iltalehti previously reported how Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine threatens to leave Western researchers and decision-makers in the dark about what is happening in the Arctic region.
According to Finnish scientists, the Arctic is warming four times faster than the Earth on average.
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