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Created by First reported by J.P. Koch and Aage Bertelsen | ||
Fata Morgana Land (Danish: Fata Morgana Landet) was a phantom island in the Arctic. It was supposedly lying between NE Greenland and Svalbard at the northern end of the Greenland Sea .
History
In 1907, in the course of the 1906-08 Danmark Expedition led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, J.P. Koch and Aage Bertelsen were reported to have first seen Fata Morgana Land at around 80°00′N 10°00′W. This elusive land was allegedly seen as well by Lauge Koch from the air in 1933, as well as by Peter Freuchen in 1935 and by Ivan Papanin in 1937. Following the latter alleged sighting, Lauge Koch undertook a seaplane expedition from Svalbard in 1938 but found no trace of it.
The reported Fata Morgana Land sightings were possibly of Tobias Island (Greenlandic: Tuppiap Qeqertaa, a barren rocky island somewhat further south. Located roughly 70 km from the northeastern coast of Greenland the position of Tobias Island was determined with accuracy only in 1993.