Bizarre Phenomenon Of Mysteriously Disappearing Islands

A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com – There are certain geographical islands that appeared on maps for a period of time, but were later removed from these maps, after it was proven they do not exist.

They vanished without a trace from one day to another, or became hidden from view in many parts of this planet.

No shadow or smudge of them on the horizon remains. Many experienced sailors have faced the non-existence of the island in the place assigned to it.
Especially in the region of the Pacific Ocean, the world’s oral tradition has highlighted this phenomenon, for many centuries  but it does not mean it has ever been explained.

What kind of plausible explanation could shed some light on the phenomenon of disappearing islands that stay hidden from researchers, explorers and sailors trying to find them?
Islands had tendence to disappear centuries ago and they do it today as well.

One of them, is a mysterious piece of land named Sarah Ann Island discovered in 1858.

It existed once just north of the equator. Noted by astronomers as located directly in the path of a total solar eclipse scheduled for June 8, 1937, the island was even charted for a period of time.
Its perfect, remote location gave the scientists an idea to set up an observation post on the island. But the mysterious island suddenly disappeared out of sight and a search launched in the summer 1937, simply failed.

At different times, the two men, Captains Horsburgh and Cornwallis, searched through the vast area of waters located 600 miles northwest of Tristan de Cunha in the South Atlantic.

They looked for the charted piece of land known as Saxemberg Island, discovered by Dutch navigator John L. Lindeman in 1670. Lindeman, a seafarer with experience, reported the island’s coordinates and even made a sketch depicting the island along with its pointed mountain in the middle.

Additional sketches made by other explorers provided information on variety of plants growing on the island. In vain, the sailors searched for a phantom island of Saxemberg but they didn’t find it, at least not in the seventeenth century.

Saxemberg Island suddenly appeared again in 1804 and was in view for the crew of the American schooner Fanny for as long as four hours! Also in 1816, the island along with its peaked high hill, was reported to be seen by the True Briton’s crew for six hours!
Both earlier mentioned, Captains Cornwallis and Horsburgh hadn’t any luck to see the island. When Captain Cornwallis approached the area in 1821, the island was not there anymore. Several years later, Captain Horsburgh also sailed for exploration of the same area. He also found nothing.

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Mysterious Saxemberg Island appeared on all official maps and naval charts between the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Both land masses of Sarah Ann Island and Saxemberg were seen by some ships passing through the area.
Subsequent voyages to the locations of the islands simply failed to locate them again.

“…an island which has been frequently sought by the East-India, and other ships, in the place which it still occupies in the charts; and not finding it there, they have run a few degrees to the _eastward_, in the same parallel, but always without success…” (Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814, A Voyage to Terra Australis, Vol 1)

At first sight, the phenomenon defy rational explanation.

What is the reason or reasons of these bizarre disappearances? Why did many islands disappear from their stated positions?

According to one of the theories, vanishings islands phenomenon could be explained by the notorious instability of the Pacific’s floor. The Pacific Ocean has been the scene of many violent, volcanic eruptions that resulted in formation of many small islands. Is it also responsible for their disappearance?

Some of them originated from depths of more than 16,000 feet.

Recently, Sandy Island in South Pacific Ocean, between Australia and New Caledonia was found to be non existing. Interestingly this island was marked clearly on Google Maps and other world maps like National Geographic’s, till as recently as November 26 2012. It has now been declared a phantom island.

Written by A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com

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References:
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