83-42 is a rocky islet in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

which may be the northernmost permanent point of land on Earth. It is also sometimes referred to as Eklipse 0, or Schmitt’s Island, after its discoverer,

Dennis Schmitt Dennis Schmitt (born May 23, 1946) is a veteran explorer, adventurer and composer. Early life Schmitt grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of mixed German and American parentage. His father was a plumber. Displaying early aptitude with lang ...

. It measures and in height, and lies from the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. When it was discovered in 1998, lichens were found growing on it, suggesting it was not one of the temporary

gravel bar A bar in a river is an elevated region of sediment (such as sand or gravel) that has been deposited by the flow. Types of bars include mid-channel bars (also called braid bars and common in braided rivers), point bars (common in meandering ...

s commonly found in that region. The island was discovered on 6 July 2003 by an American expedition led by Dennis Schmitt and Frank Landsberger. The expedition members gave it the unofficial name 83-42, reflecting its latitude of 83 degrees 42 minutes north. To be recognized as land area it is required that the area permanently rise out of the water, even at high tide. Given its very small size, it is doubtful whether 83-42 has this property. According to its discoverer, 83-42 is composed of rocks and boulders, a relatively resistant material, and is not just a fleeting sand and gravel bank. The height of about above the water surface could indicate that 83-42 is a permanent island given the weak tidal effect in the Arctic Ocean. As of November 2007, however, the island was not officially recognized as land area. In most geography books,

Kaffeklubben Island Kaffeklubben Island or Coffee Club Island ( da, Kaffeklubben Ø; kl, Inuit Qeqertaat) is an uninhabited island lying off the northern tip of Greenland. It contains the northernmost undisputed point of land on Earth. Discovery The first re ...

is still listed as the northernmost point of land. If 83-42 is granted status as land, it will be the northernmost land area on Earth. Since the classification of a land area as an island is not dependent on the size of the land area, 83-42 would also become the most northerly island in the world. Other islands which have been proposed as the northernmost include

ATOW1996 ATOW1996 is one of the northernmost documented points of land on Earth. It is a small island about long and one metre high, located several miles north of Cape Morris Jesup in northern Greenland at . It was discovered by and named after the (A ...

, RTOW2001, and

Oodaaq Oodaaq or Oodap Qeqertaa is a bank of gravel and silt northeast of Greenland that has been considered by some to be the northernmost point of land on Earth, though a number of other places have also been given that title since its discovery. I ...

. However, these are not thought to be permanent islands, but rather semi-permanent gravel banks, moved around by waves and ice floes.

References

{{Reflist Uninhabited islands of Greenland