maybe there is something to global warming...
Russia Keeps on Growing. Two New Arctic Islands Discovered as Ice Cover Thins
If global warming is real Russia stands to reap enormous benefits
President Vladimir Putin voice support on Friday for a proposal to give the name Khrustalny [Crystal] to one of the newly discovered islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago separating the Barents and Kara seas.
Participants in a session of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographic Society told him about two new islands that had been discovered by general school students Artyom Makarenko and Viktoria Sayenko.
The islands reemerged in the process of melting of glaciers near the Novaya Zemlya. They were identified on images obtained with the aid of satellites for remote sounding of the Earth’s crust.
Valeria Sayenko personally told Putin that after the opening of the two islands Russia’s territory had increased by 290,000 sq. km. [sic] She also asked the President to give the name Khrustalny to an island in honor of a summer camp, which is part of the world-famous Artek children’s summer recreation facility in Crimea.
"I think we’ll meet the request of the discoverers halfway if the trustees don’t have objections," Putin said.
He also asked if other islands might have disappeared after the thickness of ice while the newly discovered ones reemerged from under the ice cover.
Putin quoted an expert assessment saying that accumulation of ice and snow occurs in some areas of the Arctic simultaneously with ice thinning in other areas.
Sayenko said to this that the melting of ice in the Arctic was proceeding at a fast enough pace at present and therefore there was a prospect of discovering more new islands.
