A tiny outcrop of rocks found off the northern coast of Greenland could open up a new front in the looming battle for control of the Arctic and the North Pole.

The best candidate to date for the world's northernmost point of land - a mythical place sought by explorers for centuries - was spotted in July during an expedition led by Arctic veteran Dennis Schmitt.

California-based Schmitt, best-known for his 2005 discovery of Warming Island off the eastern coast of Greenland, named it Stray Dog West because, he said, it "erred under the ice".