'Phantom island' riddle solved, says New Zealand researcher
A New Zealand researcher on Monday claimed to have solved the riddle of a mystery South Pacific island shown on Google Earth and world maps which does not exist, blaming a whaling ship from 1876.
A New Zealand researcher on Monday claimed to have solved the riddle of a mystery South Pacific island shown on Google Earth and world maps which does not exist, blaming a whaling ship from 1876.
The Times Atlas of the World appears to identify it as Sable Island, but according to Australian scientists who went searching last month during a geological expedition it could not be found.
Intrigued, Shaun Higgins, a researcher at Auckland Museum, started investigating and claimed it never existed, with a whaling ship the source of the original error.
“As far as I can tell, the island was recorded by the whaling ship the Velocity,” Higgins told ABC radio, adding that the ship’s master reported a series of “heavy breakers” and some “sandy islets”.
“My supposition is that they simply recorded a hazard at the time. They might have recorded a low-lying reef or thought they saw a reef. They could have been in the wrong place. There are a number of possibilities,” he said.
“But what we do have is a dotted shape on the map that’s been recorded at that time and it appears it’s simply been copied over time.”
News of the invisible island sparked debate on social media at the time, with tweeters pointing out that Sandy Island Missing Pacific island riddle solved: researcheras also on Yahoo Maps as well as Bing Maps.
Google told news agency AFP last month that it always welcomed feedback on maps and “continuously explores ways to integrate new information from our users and authoritative partners into Google Maps”.
It appears that Sandy Island has now been taken off its map.