Scientists 'Undiscover' Pacific Island

There is only one explanation!

reply to post by spacedoubt

i am sure that my girlfriend has something to do with this , she is allways bringing home odd things home after her holidays , pebbles , shells etc so i would not put it past her to have slipped this island in her hand bag .

The article at the link was interesting and informative, thank you OP. I followed up with some internet searching on the lead scientist, Dr. Maria Seton. She's a highly credible PhD with multiple geological publications. I think the explanation in the article is right - this was a cartography error at some point in the past that was carried forward in the global database. There's really no reason to think otherwise, especially since the article says this is a normal thing to happen.

Specific quote from the article:

"Mike Prince, the director of charting services for the Australian Hydrographic Service, a department within the Navy that produces the country’s official nautical charts, said the world coastline database incorporated individual reports that were sometimes old or contained errors. "We take anything off that database with a pinch of salt," he said.

However, I can't explain the Google Maps blackout... interesting. Nice find, OP.

Originally posted by winofiend
Either that or...

You have to understand, everything I did, I did for the Island.

o.O

As soon as I read the thread I thought of the Lost island.

We won't be able to find the island, the island has to find us.

THANKS for my Laugh of the day ..

seriously .. I as soon as I read this.. I almost woke up my wife I LOL ~Kudos to the research

Originally posted by jude11
reply to post by lavenlaar

 

I've lost keys, money, girlfriends, bets, and directions.

But never an island.

Strange indeed.

Back in 2009

Google Earth shows it as Sandy Island with no further explanation.

Sandy Island is located at 19 degrees 13' 18.18" S, 159 degrees 56' 13.54" E

I noticed it is blacked out on Yahoo maps and Bing maps as well.

Anyone have any idea what is located here?productforums.google.com...#!topic/earth/V5gNYv_lFjw

And another poster:

I opened the "more" folder in the Layers panel in Google Earth and turned on the digital globe layer archive. There is imagery that has been taken over this island, some from 2009. When you click on the low [ 0-10%] cloud cover tiles, when you look at what should cross with the island shape, all you see is blue water with some clouds floating over. This seems to be the case for the different years. It seems odd.

Possible explanation is "Bad Data"... traced back to 1979.

confirmend with the French Hydrograpic office today, there is a bad area in the elevation model. NW of new Caledonia, SE of Recif Bampton is a phantom Island, Sand Is. This was removed from the navigation charts in 1979. There is no directly measured or gravity derived batymetry to suport this feature. Please disregard this feature.

Peace

edit on 21-11-2012 by jude11 because: (no reason given)

Really odd!


At Bing Maps, the whole area is black.

And Yahoo Maps seems to use the same data as Google:



FlashEarth

Here is one, same name, different location....

I think I had a book on this subject, islands that were on charts but did not exist.

Source

Encyclopedia > Sandy Island

Map of Pitcairn Islands. Source:CIA World Factbook
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Sandy Island is an uninhabited strip of sand in the Oeno Island coral atoll of the South Pacific Ocean. Sandy Island is part of the Pitcairn Islands colony.

Sandy Island is located at 23°54′44″S, 130°43′37″W, about 143 km (77 nautical miles) northwest of Pitcairn Island.

Originally posted by blskv109a
The article at the link was interesting and informative, thank you OP. I followed up with some internet searching on the lead scientist, Dr. Maria Seton. She's a highly credible PhD with multiple geological publications. However, I can't explain the Google Maps blackout... interesting. Nice find, OP.

Obviously, Dr. Seton not real and now no one will look for the island.

Wow!

Phys.org talks about us

On www.abovetopsecret.com , discussions were robust with one poster claiming he had confirmed with the French hydrographic office that it was indeed a phantom island and was supposed to have been removed from charts in 1979.

Another claimed: "Many mapmakers put in deliberate but unobtrusive and non-obvious 'mistakes' into their maps so that they can know when somebody steals the map data."

phys.org...


Edit:
A Wikipedia page was just created today:
en.wikipedia.org...

This old chestnut.

Here is the answer !

This sounds like a job for Jack Shephard!!!

Where oh where is Oceanic 815?

I see I'm not the only one thinking along these lines... lol.

reply to post by lavenlaar


I almost immediately dismissed this as a case of 'cartographic copyright protection' like Google putting a nonexistent English town on Google Maps, but..

1)
If it was supposed to be a protection, then shouldn't someone have reacted when it showed up on competitor's maps?

2)
Should not Google, Yahoo and Microsoft show either an animated map based on the cartographic data OR just water, if they had become aware of the island not being there? The Blacking-it-out solution makes no sense (to me at least). Also, It is my understanding that blacking out areas are normally only done upon request.

3)
Looking at the topography of the not blacked out surroundings, the nonexistent island is placed just where an island could be expected to be, if one should indeed be there. Look at the pic below - it's composed of screen dumps from Yahoo and Google. Point being that it makes it seem less likely to initially be a random error carried on by other mapmakers.




I really would like a comment from Google on why it's blacked out. Strangely neither the interviewer nor the spokesperson address that. Isn't that weird?

Oh well..
:

Considering the thread a couple of years back of "Australia & NZ are out of place of the map" thread.....

Alot of people on there believed australia was a lot further down south & more isolated from any other land masses (instead of virtually touching P.N.G as it is at present) is it worth checking if Sandy Island is still in the place that it would be if Australia was located further south?

Just a random thought....

reply to post by lavenlaar

Probably a lab....scary lab.

The demonstrated on TV many years ago an electrical camo that changes pattern instantly to what is behind it. I bet they have a flawless working type since they showed one that makes an airplane disappear.

reply to post by winofiend


crapola...you beat me to it...now that would be so cool! LOVE LOST!

I guess it's LOST.

Originally posted by rickymouse
Hmmm....Should have called it turtle island.

Ghost Island because it appears and then disappears!

Has to be Themyscira.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Amazons had grown tired of the evil ways of mankind in ancient Greece after being enslaved by Hercules and had separated themselves to this island where they could practice a peaceful way of life and cultivate their minds. With the island blessed by the Olympian Gods, no man is allowed to physically set foot on it.

en.wikipedia.org...

The blanking out on Google is interesting.
I'm going to be a convo somewhere along these lines happened

Google employee 1 "Erm hey boss, we just got the new satellite images in, but there's a problem, there's supposed to be an Island here but all I've got is pictures of the Sea"

Boss "Are you sure there's an Island there?"

Google Employee 1 "Yeah I checked, it's on these other maps, even the CIA say it's there"

Boss "Oh God I'm still in trouble for that time we mixed up the Paris and New York data and put the Eiffel Tower in Down town Manhattan, tell you what, just draw a black blob over it, it's not like anyone is going to notice"

OMG!
They found Wonder Woman's Island! They would have seen it if they had taken the invisible jet!