How Atlantic City Sunk into the Sea After Horrifying Weather in Norway

Scientists are learning a bit more about some strange weather that hit Norway's most northwesterly territory. While mapping the geology of Jan Mayen Island, they found ruins from Atlantic City, an American base from the Second World War.

During the Second World War, Jan Mayen Island was the only part of the Kingdom of Norway that the exiled government in London had full control over. Norwegian researchers recently found an old reminder.

The researchers' primary job was to map the island's geology, and hot its climate has changed during the last few thousand years. As part of the world, they investigated the floor of Nordlaguna, a lake on the island.

As they conducted field work, the scientists turned up some unexpected objects. A boat-like object showed up on the AUV's scan. In order to examine it more closely, the researchers used an underwater ROV the film the site of the find, confirming that it was a small rowboat that dated from the island's role in the Second World War.

The island had a weather station on it already when the war began. In 1940, the Germans tried to take the island to take advantage of weather reports, though the German ship was sunk by the British. As many as 52 Norwegians were stationed on the island at the time of the war, though after the 1940 attempts the Germans never really made an effort to take the island.

Because of the bad weather around Jan Mayen Island, several German planes crashed nearby; this led the Germans to believe that there was a fighter jet base on the island, even though it was just the weather. And in 1943, the Americans built a radio surveillance station on the island, dubbing it "Atlantic City."

What's interesting, though, is that the whole camp was blown into Nordlanguna during a storm on 28 September 1954; Atlantic City was effectively swallowed by the sea. A keel boat was also blown into the sea, as well-which is probably the one found by researchers today.

The latest findings show a bit more about how violent weather was on the island. Now, researchers are taking a closer look at how the weather has changed to today.

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