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Thread: South Pacific island has gone missing

  1. #1
    Just Married AcesandEights's Avatar
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    South Pacific island has gone missing

    Did they look between the sofa cushions?

    South Pacific Sandy Island 'proven not to exist'


    Source: A South Pacific island, shown on marine charts and world maps as well as on Google Earth and Google Maps, does not exist, Australian scientists say.

    The supposedly sizeable strip of land, named Sandy Island on Google maps, was positioned midway between Australia and French-governed New Caledonia.

    But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea.

    The phantom island has featured in publications for at least a decade.

    Scientist Maria Seton, who was on the ship, said that the team was expecting land, not 1,400m (4,620ft) of deep ocean.

    "We wanted to check it out because the navigation charts on board the ship showed a water depth of 1,400m in that area - very deep," Dr Seton, from the University of Sydney, told the AFP news agency after the 25-day voyage.

    "It's on Google Earth and other maps so we went to check and there was no island. We're really puzzled. It's quite bizarre.

    "How did it find its way onto the maps? We just don't know, but we plan to follow up and find out."

    Australian newspapers have reported that the invisible island would sit within French territorial waters if it existed - but does not feature on French government maps.

    Australia's Hydrographic Service, which produces the country's nautical charts, says its appearance on some scientific maps and Google Earth could just be the result of human error, repeated down the years.

    A spokesman from the service told Australian newspapers that while some map makers intentionally include phantom streets to prevent copyright infringements, that was was not usually the case with nautical charts because it would reduce confidence in them.

    A spokesman for Google said they consult a variety of authoritative sources when making their maps.

    "The world is a constantly changing place, the Google spokesman told AFP, "and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour'.'

    The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Sydney says that while most explorers dream of discovering uncharted territory, the Australian team appears to have done the opposite - and cartographers everywhere are now rushing to undiscover Sandy Island for ever.

    "Men choose as their prophets those who tell them that their hopes are true." --Lord Dunsany

  2. #2
    Twitching
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    It's twenty miles above them.
    Floating.

  3. #3
    Webmaster Neil's Avatar
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    Surely satellite images would show it not (ever) there?
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan

  4. #4
    Chasing Prey clanglee's Avatar
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    “ The nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh…was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults. ”
    — H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu (1928)


    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl
    Last edited by clanglee; 29-Nov-2012 at 12:04 AM. Reason: rw
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    HpotD Curry Champion krakenslayer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil View Post
    Surely satellite images would show it not (ever) there?
    Yeah, Google Maps didn't actually show the island in satellite view (or rather, only a patch of darkened sea, the darkening apparently being some kind of mask auto-applied to areas logged as land), but it was shown clearly in map mode. The ambiguity of its existence is probably helped by the name it was given - Sandy Island implies it could be some form of sand bank, atoll or tidal structure that is submerged at certain times. So if you look at a satellite shot and see it's not there, you might assume it was hidden just under the waves.

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    Just Married AcesandEights's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by krakenslayer View Post
    The ambiguity of its existence is probably helped by the name it was given - Sandy Island implies it could be some form of sand bank, atoll or tidal structure that is submerged at certain times. So if you look at a satellite shot and see it's not there, you might assume it was hidden just under the waves.
    I think the name played a role, as I thought the same thing: "Well, it was/is probably just a sandbar island. However the depth of the water in that area precludes this, which is one of the reasons it came to the attention of the researchers.

    "Men choose as their prophets those who tell them that their hopes are true." --Lord Dunsany

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    Dead Rancid Carcass's Avatar
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    Hmm... mysterious island in the south pacific that's almost impossible to detect... think I know the answer...



    F.A.B. !

  8. #8
    HpotD Curry Champion krakenslayer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AcesandEights View Post
    I think the name played a role, as I thought the same thing: "Well, it was/is probably just a sandbar island. However the depth of the water in that area precludes this, which is one of the reasons it came to the attention of the researchers.
    Exactly! What I mean is, that is probably the reason it went undetected by people looking at satellite imagery and whatnot - they have no local knowledge or context (i.e. probably wouldn't know/care about ocean depth at that spot, or even think it necceasary to check/consider it) - while it took a team of researchers in the area with an interest and depth charts for comparison, to recognise the error.

  9. #9
    Feeding LouCipherr's Avatar
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    Bah, you guys have this all wrong.

    It was global warming. A few polar ice caps melted, a few more dead polar bear carcasses in the water, and BAM! Ocean levels rise and no more island.

    Al Gore is sad.


  10. #10
    Zombie Flesh Eater EvilNed's Avatar
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    Oh, it'll turn up.

  11. #11
    has the velocity Mike70's Avatar
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    it's the Pacific version of the island from Pirates of the Caribbean. only people who know where it's at can find it.

    ...which begs the question how anyone found it in the first place.
    "The bumps you feel are asteroids smashing into the hull."

  12. #12
    Walking Dead mista_mo's Avatar
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    It was me. I did it.

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    Chasing Prey MoonSylver's Avatar
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    We have to get back to the island...




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    It must've been the terrorists...

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