In 1955, in the preface to one of the editions of the book "Sannikov Land", its author - Academician V. A. Obruchev (1863-1956) - wrote: “… The mystery of some Arctic islands has not yet been solved, although the legends about their existence have been passed down from generation to generation for over 150 years. Brave explorers and hunters.., as well as some Arctic explorers on fine days, rare for the Far North, saw these islands from high places, but could not get to them. The island, located north of the Novosibirsk Islands archipelago, was named Sannikov Land after Yakov Sannikov, who was the first to see it on the horizon among the ice. It is known that Sannikov Land has not yet been found. But does this mean that it did not exist at all?
Disappearing islands
Many scientists argue that the disappearing islands are most likely composed of ice debris, tree trunks and rocks brought to a specific location by sea currents. Having existed for some time, such islands disappear, being destroyed under the influence of waves, warm winds and sea currents. Of course, the process of formation of such formations is not interrupted, but its intensity is currently decreasing due to global warming. And nevertheless, new ghost islands continue to appear off the Arctic coast of Russia.
But was that the case with Sannikov Land?
In 1809-1810, the island was seen to the north of the Kotelny island by the industrialist Yakov Sannikov and the explorer of the north of Siberia Matvey Gedenshtrom - members of a cartographic expedition that worked there. However, 100 years later, the opinion was established that Sannikov Land is a myth and that it never existed. This seemed obvious, since the Great Northern Sea Route ran along the Arctic coast of Siberia, and such a large island as it was described would certainly have been discovered. Today, airliners flying from Europe to the Far East fly over the North Pole, and in the 60s of the XX century this water area was thoroughly surveyed with the help of reconnaissance military satellites in search of convenient water (and, above all, underwater) sea routes for nuclear submarines - missile carriers.
However, I adhere to the point of view that Sannikov Land and other similar islands are by no means a myth!
Key to the Riddle: The Little Ice Age
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These islands could have existed until about the middle of the 20th century. Of course, they were not islands in the literal sense of the word, but were huge ice mountains that remained in the Arctic Ocean after the so-called Little Ice Age. What is it?
“Wikipedia” writes about it as follows: “The Little Ice Age (MLE) is a period of cooling, known mainly in the North Atlantic region and came after the period of the medieval climatic optimum. It was the last of several known cold periods of the modern geological era - the Holocene, and at the same time the coldest of them. During this period, from about 1300 to 1950, glaciers in the mountains of a number of regions of the Earth had a larger area than before and after this period ….
Floating ice islands
Apparently, the glaciers around the North Pole at that time had the greatest thickness, and huge icebergs could have formed there, which existed until the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is these super icebergs that hunters, fishermen and explorers of the Far North have seen. And when sailing to the northern shores of Siberia, the ice giants split and melted, as a result of which such a quasi-island simply disappeared. Probably, icebergs broke away from the glaciers of Greenland and the islands of the Arctic archipelago - at first glance, this seems to be the most obvious. But there is one more assumption, rather exotic: the "import" of ice masses was made from … Antarctica!
Let's imagine that during the years of the MBE temperature minimum a huge piece separates from the Antarctic glacier, slides into the ocean and becomes a giant iceberg. More precisely, a dining-room floating ice mountain. Science knows such cases, at least in recent years, when pieces equal in area to the states of Maine or Delaware were separated from the glacier of the Sixth Continent. And one such event in December 2009 caused quite a stir in Australia.
The Met Office reported that an Earth satellite transmitted a snapshot of an iceberg that separated from Antarctica several decades ago, which on December 9 was 1700 kilometers southwest of the west coast of Australia. The dimensions of the iceberg are 8x19 kilometers (!). Scientists argued that nothing like this had been observed here since the middle of the 19th century. At the same time, they warned that once in warmer waters, the iceberg would split into several hundred debris, and they would be dangerous for shipping. Soon it happened. The fragments, the largest of which were several kilometers in size, were dispersed throughout the entire water area.
Here's another case. On the morning of November 4, 2006, it became known that about a hundred large icebergs were drifting at a distance of 260 kilometers from the South Island of New Zealand. One of them is 1.6x2.2 kilometers in size and over 150 meters high. Scientist Mike Williams suggested that these were "fragments" of the giant table ice mountain A-43, measuring 32x167 kilometers, which broke away from the Antarctic Rone ice shelf in 2000.
Flight of the White Atlantis
Now imagine an ice mountain equal in area to half of Poland, which broke away from the bulk of the ice cover of the Sixth Continent. It is carried away from Antarctica by the South Circumpolar Current, moving from west to east, and at the same time moves the mountain in a northern direction. After a while, our super mountain, continuing to move away from Antarctica, will leave the zone of influence of the Subpolar Current. And if this happens near the southwestern coast of Africa, then there is a possibility that it will be picked up by the cold Benguela Current, and then it will enter the slightly warmer current of the Gulf of Guinea and with it will cross the equator, continuing to move north along the coast of North America. Greenland and Iceland, and will end up in the waters of the Arctic Ocean.
Even after such a long journey, the iceberg will retain its gigantic dimensions, and it may well be mistaken for an island. Strange as it may seem, crossing the equator will have little impact on the ice mountain's integrity. First of all, because it drifts, enveloped in a thick curtain of fog, which forms when warm and moist air comes into contact with its icy surface. The thick and dense shell of this fog protects the ice surface from the scorching rays of the equatorial sun. She protects the iceberg from the possibility of seeing it. Contacting the surface of the ice, the water also gives off heat to it, which creates a protective cushion around the ice mountain in the form of a layer of cold water. Therefore, there is a possibility that such an iceberg, despite its frightening size, could swim unnoticed across the Atlantic,literally from pole to pole!
Well, then, already in the Arctic Ocean, the iceberg is circling, carried by the currents, finding itself here and there along the coast of Siberia within sight, as a result of which there are reports of the discovery of an unknown island in the local waters. This continues until this colossus of ice, under the influence of increasing water temperature and under the influence of winds, gradually disintegrates into smaller ice "islands", and then does not disappear at all …
Are there any grounds for such assumptions? Known stories of travelers, hunters, explorers of the Arctic coast and the seas washing it. I believe that one should also study the ship's logs, diaries and other records of captains, crew members and passengers of ships that paved the sea routes to the New World - to the American mainland during the ILE, that is, in the period 1570-1770.
First of all, it is necessary to look for reports of unusual weather and hydrological phenomena that could be noted in these waters. In addition, it would be necessary to check whether the victims of such a giant iceberg were those ships in the Bermuda Triangle area, the death or disappearance of which is attributed to the influence of the local "mysterious forces". Perhaps, on the basis of the information obtained in this way, it would be possible to designate the route of such a hypothetical ice mountain - White Atlantis?
Of course, all that has been said is just a hypothesis, but I believe that the possibility of confirming it exists - as well as the possibility of refutation. In my opinion, it should interest oceanologists and glaciologists, not to mention historians and climatologists - after all, this is precisely their field of activity.
Robert Lesniakiewicz, Jordanow, Poland Specially for the newspaper
"Secrets of the XX century" Abridged translation by Vadim Ilyin
Editor’s Note: Robert Lesniakiewicz is a journalist and writer and vice president of the Polish Center for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena (CBZA).