Fata Morgana Land () is a

phantom island A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigati ...

first sighted in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, off the north-eastern coast of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

in 1907 by J.P. Koch and

Aage Bertelsen Aage Bertelsen (28 September 1873 – 9 September 1945) was a Danish painter. He was a member of the Denmark Expedition to North-East Greenland. He has also worked for Kähler Keramik in Næstved. Biography Early life and career Aage Bertels ...

. It has been reported between

and

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

, at the northern end of the

Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea ( Danish: ''Grønlandshavet'') is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Gre ...

. It is a reflection of the nearby Tobias Island and does not actually exist. Its status as a mirage or phantom island was confirmed in 1993.Ole Bennike, Naja Mikkelsen & Rene Forsberg
"Tobias Ø"
- ''Grønlands Selskab'' (Danish)

History

J.P. Koch and

were the first to report sighting land at approximately . This sighting occurred in 1907, during the 1906–08

Danmark Expedition The Denmark expedition (), also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast and the Danmark Expedition after the ship's name, was an expedition to northeastern Greenland in 1906–1908. Despite being overshadowed by the dea ...

led by

Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (15 January 1872 – 25 November 1907) was a Danish author, ethnologist, and explorer, from Ringkøbing. He was most notably an explorer of Greenland. Literary expedition With Count Harald Moltke and Knud Rasmussen Mylius- ...

. Fata Morgana Land was also allegedly sighted near this location by

Lauge Koch Lauge Koch (5 July 1892 – 5 June 1964) was a Danish geologist and Arctic explorer. Biography Lauge Koch was born in 1892 to Karl and Elisabeth Koch. His development as a scientist was greatly influenced by his father's second cousin Johan Peter ...

in 1933, from the air, as well as by Peter Freuchen in 1935 and by

Ivan Papanin Ivan Dmitriyevich Papanin (; – 30 January 1986) was a Soviet polar explorer, scientist, Counter Admiral, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union, who was awarded nine Orders of Lenin. Life and career Early life and participation in the Russia ...

in 1937. Following Papanin's sighting, Koch undertook a seaplane expedition from Svalbard in 1938 to search for the supposed island. He used a Dornier Wal, 297 'Samum', purchased by the Danish government from Germany. With Flight Captain Rudolf Mayer and wireless operator Franz Preuschoff (lent from

Deutsche Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline. It served as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and t ...

) and a Danish naval officer, Koch flew from Copenhagen to Kings Bay in Spitsbergen. They approached Greenland from different directions but were unable to find any trace of land. The non-existent island was named Fata Morgana Land after the Fata Morgana, a type of mirage common in polar regions. The assumption is, the mirage sighted at its location was actually Fata Morganas of Tobias Island (). The position of Tobias Island, roughly from the north-eastern coast of Greenland, was determined with accuracy only in 1993.Ole Bennike, Naja Mikkelsen & Rene Forsberg
"Tobias Ø"
- ''Grønlands Selskab'' (Danish)

Mirages

In the 1820s and 30s in Great Britain, mirages were a widely studied phenomenon. Scientists theorized about the causes and conditions for mirages as well as their symbolic meaning and religious role. This investigation was tied into scientific curiosities about the human eye and the natural world. Fata Morganas are a type of mirage called a superior

mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...

. A superior mirage is created by a downward refraction of light as it passes through a temperature gradient, warm to cold. This type of mirage is most common in polar regions where the temperature change is vast enough to create a large refraction. The downward curvature of the refracted light must be equal to or greater than the

curvature of the Earth Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. ...

. Fata Morganas are a distinct type of superior mirage because they are complex and clear images that appear in sets of three or more. They are not always linked to real objects on the horizon.

Tuppiap Qeqertaa (Tobias Island)

Tuppiap Qeqertaa ( Tobias island) is located 70 km off the coast of Greenland and is 2 km long and 35 m tall. The small island is covered in ice, this caused its true size to remain hidden until satellite interferometry and airborne laser scanning was used to map the area. This area was particularly hard to map traditionally and prone to Fata Morganas because of the often foggy and cloudy weather and being covered in sea ice. The confirmation that this island was a Fata Morganas, not a true island did not come until 1993, with the use of satellite mapping. This is caused by the conditions of the area, the icy rocky waters make it very hard to reach the island by ship, and the foggy and cloudy weather makes it very hard to observe from the aerial view of a sea plane.

History

Mirages

Tuppiap Qeqertaa (Tobias Island)

See also

References

Further reading