Dennis Schmitt facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dennis Schmitt
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Dennis Schmitt on Warming Island, 2006.
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Dennis Wayne Schmitt
May 23, 1946 |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | Explorer, adventurer, composer |
Dennis Schmitt was born on May 23, 1946. He is an American explorer, adventurer, and even a composer! He is known for discovering new islands and exploring some of the most remote places on Earth.
Contents
Growing Up and Early Adventures
Dennis Schmitt grew up in Berkeley, California. He was good at languages, music, and math from a young age. After finishing high school in 1963, he studied languages at UC Berkeley.
When he was 19, a famous language expert named Noam Chomsky asked Dennis to go to Alaska. His mission was to learn the Nunamiut dialect, a special way of speaking used by some Inuit people.
Exploring the World
Dennis Schmitt lived for four years in an Alaskan Inuit village called Anaktuvuk Pass. After that, he started leading many exciting trips, including some for the Sierra Club.
Discovering New Islands
In 2003, Schmitt found a piece of land that might be the northernmost land in the world! He decided that Greenland should name its own islands. So, he simply called it "83-42", which is still its name today.
Two years later, in 2005, Schmitt found another new island. This island appeared because a large ice shelf in East Greenland had melted away. This new land is called Uunartoq Qeqertaq, which means "The Warming Island" in the Inuit language. It is about 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Dennis Schmitt shared his feelings about this discovery:
- "We felt the excitement of finding something new."
- "But there was also something a bit scary about what we saw."
- "We were looking at these big changes, and we all thought about what might happen next."
More Amazing Expeditions
In July 2007, Schmitt found another island that could be the "northernmost island on Earth." An expedition member named Holly Wenger called it Stray Dog West. This island is part of a group of islands called the Stray Dog Islands. They are found in the sea ice north of Peary Land in northeast Greenland.
Schmitt was also the first person to climb the highest point of the Daly Range. This is part of the northernmost mountain chain on Earth. He also explored Alaska's Brooks Range and was the first to cross Axel Heiberg Island in northern Canada.
He even traveled across the sea ice of the Bering Straits to the Soviet Union. He visited Eskimo villages in eastern Siberia.
Music and Writing
Besides being an explorer, Dennis Schmitt is also a talented composer of classical music. He created the soundtrack for the 1978 movie, The Alaska Wilderness Adventure.
He also writes poems called sonnets. He uses the pen name D O'Farrell for his writing. Dennis Schmitt speaks several languages, including Russian, Norwegian, Danish, and French. He lives in Berkeley, California.
See also
- List of polar explorers
- Polar exploration
- History of Greenland
