Sandy Island, New Caledonia
Sandy Island is a non-existent island that was supposedly located between Australia and New Caledonia. The island is visible as a land mass on Google's world maps and on The Times Atlas of the World (there named Sable Island), but an expedition to the supposed location concluded the island didn't exist.[1] Had the island existed, it would have been within French territorial waters.[2]
It has been suggested that the island first appeared on a map as a copyright trap, but has remained, unchallenged, ever since. It is normal practice in cartography to place a fictitious "trap street" on a map for the purpose of "trapping" potential copyright violators; however, the Australian Hydrographic Service, a department of the Royal Australian Navy, opined that this would not have been standard practice with nautical charts.[3]
As the maps show the fictitious island coinciding with a local rise of the continental shelf, the feature may be a sandy feature in the sea bed.
References
- ^ "Scientists un-discover Pacific island". The News. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
- ^ "Where did it go? Scientists 'undiscover' Pacific island". WA Today. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
- ^ "Where did it go? Scientists 'undiscover' Pacific island". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved November 22, 2012.