(CNN) The Russian Navy has discovered five new islands in the Arctic after they were revealed by melting glaciers.

The Navy first spotted the islands in 2016 using satellite imagery, but only confirmed and mapped them in August and September during an expedition to the site, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

The new islands are located near the Vylki glacier off the coast of the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago, which lies in the Arctic Ocean northwest of the Russian mainland. They range in area from 900 to 54,500 square meters (about 9,690 to 586,630 square feet) -- as big as 10 football fields.

"Basically, this (discovery) is associated with the melting of ice," said expedition leader Aleksandr Moiseyev on Tuesday, according to state-run news agency TASS . "Previously these were glaciers, but the melting of ice led to the islands emerging."

Moiseyev added that since the islands have been charted, the findings will now be officially recorded and the islands will be named.