An island has separated from mainland Greenland because of global climate change.
The Independent reported that the melting of Greenland's ice sheet caused what was once thought to be the tip of a peninsula on Greenland's east coast to separate from the mainland.
U.S. Geological Survey satellite photos confirmed the island's existence. American explorer Dennis Schmitt discovered the mass and named it Warming Island, the Independent reported.
Satellite photos show that the island was part of the coast in 1985, linked to the mainland by an ice bridge in 2002 and completely separate by the summer of 2005, the newspaper said.
It is an example of the melting of the world's second-largest ice sheet, after Antarctica, the Independent reported.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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