Sandy Island, the Undiscovered Country 182
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."
Re:Good. Gooooood.... (Score:5, Informative)
You are John Galt and I claim my five gold dollars.
Re:Copyright Trap, perhaps? (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA
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.
Re:Funny! (Score:4, Informative)
They seem to have a system that matches known land areas (they incorrectly have this identified as land) and remove the 'blue fog' they use in lieu of real aerial photography over most deep water. You can also see this effect any place with shoals, sandbanks, small island groups etc.
It doesn't seem to be news... (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Google Satellite View is interesting (Score:5, Informative)
What is stranger is that on Google maps' satellite view at that exact location there is a black area
For lands, Google Maps is displaying satellite/aerial imagery. For seas/oceans, they're displaying a seabed topology map. The black is just the color of the ocean as seen by satellites, showing through the sea/land mask.
Obligatory (Score:4, Informative)
map [google.com]
Re:Funny! (Score:4, Informative)
FWIW, it's common for map makers and atlas makers to include some false streets and features. This is to enable them to prove that someone else copied from them. Perhaps this is one of those receiving publicity?