Dennis Schmitt

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Dennis Schmitt is a veteran explorer from UC Berkeley who may have discovered the northernmost permanent island on Earth off the north coast of Greenland.

[edit] Expedition

Schmitt and five companions stepped onto a tiny island in the Arctic Circle in July of 1993 in order to find the world's northernmost land -- called "Ultima Thule" by the ancient philosophers/explorers/cartographers.

Kaffeklubben Island was thought to be Earth's Ultima Thule since it was determined to lie slightly farther north than Greenland's Cape Morris Jesup. However, In 1978, Danish surveyors found a gravel bar a mile farther north at 83° 40' latitude and named it Oodaaq, after Admiral Robert Peary's Eskimo companion.

Although it is still listed by some reference works as Earth's Ultima Thule, Oodaaq Island mysteriously disappeared and has not been seen for some years now. Since the discovery and loss of Oodaaq Island, two or three similar gravel-bank islets have been found farther north.

The 120-foot-long pile of dirt, rocks and ice reached by Schmitt's expedition at 83°42' latitude on July 6, 2003, appears to be farther north than any other known land, making his discovery a prime candidate as Ultima Thule.

Schmitt had first spotted it from an airplane in 1998. Five years later, he set foot on it, in company with University of Cambridge teacher Frank Landsberger.

As of 2006, Schmit's islet awaits Danish government evaluation. While several researchers ridicule these tiny islands as impermanent "unconsolidated piles of rubble pushed around on the continental shelf by ice and rough seas", Schmitt's expedition noted that slow-growing lichen was found on his Ultima Thule candidate, giving credibility to his assertion that his islet is permanent.