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Sandy Island, the Undiscovered Country
Big Hairy Ian writes "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."
We have to go back!
Excellent, my evil island cloaking device is functioning perfectly. They'll never know my nefarious plans until they are too late to do anything about them!
It was actually just a really really big whale.
Sandy Island: reserve before departure
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
The funny thing is Google seems to have doctored the satellite photos to put a dark blob where this fictitious island is supposed to be.
Putting non-existent features onto published maps to provide proof of future copyright infringement is a well-known practice, after all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry
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Alexander Dalrymple insists.
crazy dynamite monkey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice_raft
But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea.
April Fools!
American Third Position
Finally, a real choice!
I have no idea of the scale of this island, but I find it strange that it has the basic contours of a ship. Is it possible a ship was originally pictured and misidentified?
... The last time I visited Alderaan
Given it doesn't appear on the nautical charts of the HO responsible for the area, I would suggest that it was already proven not to exist.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
So there is a non-existing island on the map, happens.
What is stranger is that on Google maps' satellite view at that exact location there is a black area, which looks like as if someone has gone over it with an eraser, wiping out a part of the image. Roughly the size of the land mass indicated on the normal map.
Wonder why they did that.
I propose we call the island "Amercia" and put Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on it. That's the "New Amercia" Mitt was talking about. I'm sure there's plenty others we can put on the new island.
Have gnu, will travel.
ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Current legislation have no problem charging millions for Imaginary Property
If this is on navigational maps, it could be a serious safty issue - not in avoiding it, but if for example a ship in distress navigated to it verses a actual existing piece of land...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This is just a marketing stunt by the area's resident Dolphin community. They want to lure tourists to this patch of the sea, so they can do some backflips in return for loose change and hearty gifts of plankton.
Another reason to prefer OpenStreetMap. There's no pressure for contributors to add fake map features in the name of copyright enforcement.
Paid Q&A/Research
Perhaps it was just a floating pumice island.. http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/12/post_3.html
The truth should be obvious to any Doctor Who fan. The "it's only ocean" that the scientists saw was obviously a perception filter. The island is being used as a staging area for a Dalek assault.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Perhaps this island is where Saddam stashed him WMDs - it appears to be just as real.
It's Leshp!
map
=~Script~=
Big Hairy Ian: WILSON!!!!
I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
No sign of the fake island on Apple Maps. In general Apple Maps have more recent satellite coverage for lots of areas, which makes sense as they bought it more recently...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
... and more of a "Discovered Uncountry", wouldn't you say?
From TFA: "The world is a constantly changing place, the Google spokesman told AFP, "and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour'.'
tell me about it.
I'm thinking that, due to overpopulation, it simply capsized and sunk. Like Guam might. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bs23CjIWMgA#t=76s
The man who dies rich dies disgraced. -- Andrew Carnegie
See this documentary for more details. :-P
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I get that an error or bad pixel matching might have misdetected the island but... who named Sandy Island?
"The world is a constantly changing place", the Google spokesman told AFP, "and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour."
In these circumstances that's a rather unfortunate sentence unless the spokesman is suggesting that the island just vanished.
Didn't encyclopedia and dictionary authors in days gone by add spurious entries to ensure they could back up any copyright violation claims?
Google maps. Hmm...
Or perhaps it's the Island of San Seriffe...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
It's the result of french nuclears tests in the Pacific
TFA says the sea is 1400 m deep at the place the island should be. If that figure is correct, it rules out island suppression caused by nuclear tests IMO. I am not sure one could have wiped out that amount of land with a nuclear nuke without causing a tsunami on australian beaches.
There's a pretty clever blog that has found even older references to the island right where it shouldn't be:
That's because you are expecting a city, where in reality there is just a field where they grow Jessicas.
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All these posts and nobody else seems to have read "Life of Pi" and got to the bit about the floating carnivorous island full of Meercats.
Steve Jobs, is that you?
Here is a link to Google Maps for Sandy Island.
For Undiscovered Country is .uc
Its available.
Have gnu, will travel.
Did anyone else think this was just a hole in the data? Or has the island been expunged already on GMaps.