Associate Professor Leonov spoke about the discovery of more than 15 islands in the Russian Arctic

Since 2015, Russian scientists have discovered more than 15 islands of various sizes in the Arctic. This was announced on September 29 by Andrey Leonov, Associate Professor of the Department of Marine Hydrography at the Arctic Faculty of the Institute "Maritime Academy" at the Admiral Makarov State University of Marine and River Fleet.

The specialist has been studying high latitudes for a long time and is working together with the hydrographers of the Northern Fleet: together they monitor changes in the Arctic archipelagos using remote sensing data.

"I won't give you an exact figure, but since 2015, more than 15 islands have been discovered in the Arctic. At the same time, researchers have been observing the appearance of islands for years — satellite images allow us to follow the process, and sometimes it takes more than one year to be able to judge for sure the appearance of a new object," Leonov told "RIA Novosti".

According to the scientist, it is possible to confirm the formation of a cape, island or peninsula only by directly examining the area: "by checking the territory with your feet." Even detailed satellite images do not allow us to create an absolutely reliable picture. Most of the newly identified islands are located near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago; experts admit that additional new geographical features may appear in this area in the foreseeable future.

Leonov cites climate change as one of the key factors leading to the emergence of new land areas. Also, the improvement of remote sensing technologies has played an important role — they help to record the transformations of the coastline.

"Global warming is contributing to the retreat of glacier fronts, the so—called outlet glaciers. And if earlier, in order to make discoveries, researchers had to go to these areas and search, now it can be done using satellite images," the hydrographer explained.

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Earlier, Leonov reported that new islands may form in the coming years in the area of the archipelagos of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land due to the retreat of glaciers. At the same time, according to him, the land areas that have appeared do not always remain islands. Leonov cited the example of the island of Mesyatsev, which was originally considered a cape, then was designated as an island, and in 2024 completely disappeared. The researchers concluded that the object was an ice formation.