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The world is a big place—an absolute unit, if you will—but there are a lot of people
on the world—too many according to some guys.
Nonetheless, that high people to world ratio means that we know what most of the world
looks like.
Of course the fact that we have satellites now helps but, we've known for decades or
even centuries more or less what the world looks like… or so we thought.
This is Sandy Island—a beautiful, warm, and uninhabited island part of the French
overseas territory of New Caledonia.
It sits only about 650 miles north-east of Australia in the Coral Sea.
This island was likely first discovered in 1774 by Captain James Cook, who, fun fact,
was never actually a Captain, but Sandy Island was formally mapped in the late 19th century
after being spotted by a passing whaling ship.
Sandy Island, being a sunny piece of paradise, would probably be the perfect place to live
if not for one small problem—it doesn't exist.
Now, this might be a shock because this map is real.
So is this one.
In fact, you might have even heard of this map—it's called Google Maps.
Just for kicks let's switch to Google Maps' satellite view and look, Sandy Island is clearly
still there so what gives?
All the evidence clearly points to Sandy Island existing so what know-it-alls have the audacity
to say that this 15 mile long island doesn't exist?
Well, for one, the French Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine.
If you don't speak francais these are the guys that make the ocean maps for France.
Someone happened to notice in the 70s that sea depth data showed the ocean being between
5,000 and 7,000 feet deep where Sandy Island was supposed to be which was puzzling.
The French definitely wanted to figure out whether the island the size of Paris that
they assumed was part of their country actually existed so they fired up a plane, flew over,
and surprise surprise: it didn't.
I'm sure that was a bit of a bummer but oh well, the island was removed from all official
French maps in 1979 and the word was spread about Sandy's nonexistence but it wasn't
spread enough.
It was around the time that Sandy Island was first un-discovered that mapping organizations
worldwide were converting their data from analog to digital and one of them, then called
the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency, was doing just that but it just happened that
their analog maps had sourced their information from maps that sourced their data from the
original maps that included Sandy Island and they didn't get the message from France.
They've since published the beautifully named Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical,
High-resolution Geography Database which is essentially the definitive data-source for
where the world's coasts are since it's freely available.
Its data is used by a good majority of modern digital maps including Google Maps.
You can even download it yourself but it's not very exciting.
That's why Google Maps showed the small island on its maps.
It does not, however, anymore.
By the year 2012 some maps showed Sandy Island existing and some did not depending on their
data source.
A team assembled by the University of Sydney was in the area doing unrelated research on
the RV Southern Surveyor when they happened to float by Sandy Island and notice its distinct
lack of existence.
Having all the equipment, the Southern Surveyor then surveyed the area, recorded the accurate
data, and undiscovered Sandy Island for the last time.
After publishing their findings, Google Maps, along with every other map, removed Sandy
Island from existence.
But this still leaves two big questions: why was Sandy spotted in the first place and why
could you see it on Google Maps satellite view?
The first question has a plausible but unconformable explanation.
The whaling ship that first mapped Sandy Island probably did see what looked like land.
You see, when underwater volcanoes erupt they often spurt out pumice—a type of rock that
actually floats on water.
Typically this rock will float densely together and look like land creating what's called
a pumice raft.
Ocean currents have been known to bring pumice rafts to the area of Sandy Island making it
seem probable that that's what Sandy Island's discoverers saw.
Now for the second mystery.
We've thoroughly established that Sandy Island doesn't exist so why did Google's
satellite view show this?
Well, it turns out that a lot of their satellite view isn't actually satellite imagery.
You see, when you image ocean from satellite you don't get something that looks like
this.
It looks like this.
They get this texture by using bathymetric data—surveys of the ocean floor.
That's why you'll see these long lines.
There isn't actually a completely straight line between Australia and New Caledonia—this
is actually just a streak of higher resolution data from one ship sailing a straight line
and collecting bathymetric data.
Where there's land Google will switch to using full satellite imagery so where Sandy
Island was supposed to be their systems expected to have ground satellite imagery but didn't
since the island didn't exist so instead, until Sandy Island was undiscovered definitively
in 2012, the satellite map just showed this island shaped black void instead.
Now, if you believe that Sandy Island actually does exist and that it's where Amelia Earhart
lives along with my dignity, all my left socks, and other things that mysteriously disappeared
you'll probably want a map showing the island but, of course, they don't exist anymore
so you'll have to make one.
Luckily for you, you can learn how to draw maps in Photoshop using this great course
on Skillshare which you can take for free if you're one of the first 200 to sign up
at skl.sh/hai16.
Skillshare, of course, has over 20,000 courses so if there's something you want to learn
chances are they have a course on it.
I'd also recommend the course by fellow YouTuber Jordan from Business Casual on investing
101.
Of course, once again, you can take any number of these classes for free for two months by
signing up at skl.sh/hai16 and start learning skills to impress others, to get a job, or
just for fun.
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