Overview
- Researchers aboard the Alfred Wegener Institute’s icebreaker Polarstern confirmed a rocky island in the northwestern Weddell Sea that was missing from nautical charts.
- The crew first mistook the outcrop for a dirty iceberg while seeking shelter near Joinville Island, then circled it at about 150 meters with at least 50 meters of water under the keel.
- Shipboard multibeam sonar and drone photos produced the first full survey, measuring roughly 130 meters by 50 meters with a maximum height of about 16 meters.
- Existing charts showed only a vague “danger zone” about one nautical mile from the true position, and the team plans to submit corrected coordinates after the formal naming process for inclusion in charts and datasets such as IBCSO.
- Ice cover has hidden the feature in satellite images, which reflects broader mapping gaps in a region that has seen sharp summer sea‑ice decline since 2017.