Melting away: Arctic's Mesyatsev Island erased by climate change From 53 hectares to nothing

The island of Mesyatsev, once covering 53 hectares, has completely vanished from the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

According to Alexei Kucheiko, Associate Professor at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), who oversaw the observation, Mesyatsev Island — located near Eva-Liv Island — has "completely melted away," necessitating updates to navigation charts, Caliber.Az reports citing the Russian Geographical Society.

As of August 19, 2015, the area of Mesyatsev Island was about 53 hectares; on August 12, 2024, a small ice island measuring 3 hectares was recorded on the image. Another month later (September 13, 2024) the island finally disappeared from the images.

Scientists attribute this rapid erosion to global warming, which accelerates glacier melt and sea-level rise, ultimately eroding coastlines and reshaping the Arctic landscape.

Norwegian scientists from the University of Tromsø warn that the melting of Arctic sea ice could lead to significant cooling across Northern Europe. Their study, published in Nature Communications, draws on data from the last interglacial period, around 100,000 years ago, when global temperatures were warmer, ice was minimal, and sea levels were much higher.

The North Seas between Greenland and Norway play a crucial role in heat transport, influencing climate well beyond their boundaries. According to the researchers, the melting Arctic sea ice alters the water’s salinity and density, disrupting normal current flows and impacting the distribution of warm water.

Using biological, inorganic, and organic geochemical tracers from sediment cores in northern seas, the researchers reconstructed historical temperatures and salinity levels. Their findings suggest that the Arctic could revert to an interglacial state by 2050, potentially reshaping Northern Europe’s climate.

By Tamilla Hasanova