Evening star., 1952-11-10
Air Force Now Seeks
Arctic Ice Islands
Slowly Floating Masses
Resemble Actual Lund
By Thomos R. Henry

A phenomenon hitherto unknown to
geography is the "ice island"
tits slowly floating mass Of ice in
the Arctic which retains its shape for
years and is covered by hills and valleys
Of ice so that it looks like land island.
The largest yet found by United States
Air Force flyers over the earth's north
ern ice cap contains more than 800
square miles.
The ice island phenomenon Is reported
to the Arctic Institute of North America
in an account by Maj. L. s. Koenig Of
the American air forces and Squadron
Leader K. r. Greenaway of the Cana
dian air force.
Study of Canadian air photos taken
over the past few years. Squadron
Leader Greenaway says, has resulted in
the finding of % new ice islands. Some
Of these may have been identified before
as actual land islands. These great ice
masses move at little more than
mile a day and seem to follow a wide
circular track from North Ellesmere
Land westerly across the Canadian
archipelago and then northwardS over
the North Pole.
The first of these ice islands to be
recognized as such was discovered by
a United States Air Force pilot in 1946
but the information Immediately was
classified as secret by the Pentagon. It
was not declassified until 1850, by which
time several others had been recorded.
Surfaces Are Corrugated.
From the air, according to the Arctic
Institute announcement. ice islands are
readily distinguishable from ordinary
pack ice. The surfaces appear ridged, or
rolling. with wide intervening troughs,
looking from the air somewhat like cor
rugated cardboard. Actually the ridges
are as much as half mile or more
from crest to crest, and are roughly
parallel. running from one end Of the
island to the other. There often is some
indication of drainage pattern. with
small streams cutting across the large
troughS.
Low-level air observations show that
the water in these large parallel troughs
Is frozen solid, as are the streams ex-
cept for a brief summer thaw. There
apparently is a progressive cycle Of
melting and freezing.
The United States Government, ac-
cording to the announcement, has con-
sidered the study of these ice islands
so important since their discovery in
1946 that it has started program Of
methodical search for them in conjunc-
ton with routine weather flights.
Since the effectiveness of the search
depends on good visibility March and
April usually are chosen for the search
flights to coincide with the period of
the year having both daylight and mini
mum cloudiness. Once an island is dis
&c oIa ,oonn tn
follow its movements, which average
IL miles day.
Up to now a total Of more than 40
Of these islands have been charted in
the Arctic Ocean and several smaller
ones have been located in the channels
of the Canadian archipelago just north
Of the Canadian mainland.
Islands Like Land-Fast Ice.
Most Of the ice islands, it is believed.
originated by breaking away from the
indented coast north of Ellesmere Land
where land-fast ice shows much the
same surface pattern as found on the
floating islands.
The term "ice island" was used quite
frequently in the reports of polar ex-
plorers from the days of Sir John Frob-
isher, but it is unlikely that they had
the same things IN mind. They prob.
ably usually were describing icebergs,
quite a different phenomenon
Thirty years ago it still was believed
that there was land of continental pro-
portions between Northern Ellesmere
Land and the North Pole. DR.. Fred
erick A. Cook discredited claimant to
discovery of the pole. wrote of mys-
teriouS Bradley Land with high, cloud
covered mountains. In almost the same
locality Admiral Peary described some
what similar Crocker Land. Russian
explorers had reported mysterious
Sannikov Land.
These reports were thoroughly dis
proved, first by the flight of Admiral
Richard E. Byrd and later by other
flyers Yet. it now seems almost cer-
tain, everybody was telling the truth.
All saw great ice islands, which since
have disappeared.