Kaffeklubben Island

Kaffeklubben Island or The Coffee Club Island (Danish: Kaffeklubben Ø; Kalaallisut: Inuit Qeqertaat) is a small island lying off the northern tip of Greenland. It is the northernmost point of land on Earth.

Kaffeklubben Island is found at 83°40′N 29°50′W / 83.66667°N 29.83333°W / 83.66667; -29.83333Coordinates: 83°40′N 29°50′W / 83.66667°N 29.83333°W / 83.66667; -29.83333, and is 713.5 kilometres (443.4 mi) from the geographic North Pole. It is placed north of the Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, about 37 kilometres (23 mi) east of Cape Morris Jesup and west of Cape Bridgman, a little east of a central point along the northern coast of Greenland. Kaffeklubben Island is approximately 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) in length.

The island was first sighted by the American explorer Robert Peary in 1900, however, Kaffeklubben was not visited until 1921. It was then, when the Danish explorer Lauge Koch set foot on the island, that it received its name, after the coffee club in Copenhagen's museum of mineralogy.

In 1969 a Canadian team calculated that its northernmost tip lies 750 metres (2,450 ft) farther north than Cape Morris Jesup, thus claiming its record as the most northerly point on land.

Since then, several gravel banks have been found to the north, most notably Oodaaq, although there is debate as to whether Oodaaq or these other gravel banks should be considered for the record since they are rarely permanent, being regularly swallowed by the moving ice sheets, shifting, or becoming submerged in the ocean.

Famous quotes containing the word island:

    When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)