Ghost island - at different times depicted on maps of the island , in fact, do not exist. Since antiquity, the existence of islands west of the Hercules Pillars ( Antilia ) and northwest of Britain ( Thule ) has been discussed in Europe. At the time of the Great Geographical Discoveries, a large number of imaginary islands fell on the maps, for which icebergs and upper mirages were taken. It is possible that some ghost islands (for example, Ferdinandia near Sicily, Thompson Island in the South Atlantic) once existed, but were subsequently destroyed by the elements. It is also possible that for such islands, in the Arctic and Antarctic, they could take soil strata on top of fossil ice, which melted over time (probably such were, for example, Sannikov Land [1] and Andreev Land ).
From ghost islands, mythical islands should be distinguished, the existence of which has never been a matter of scientific interest (in the Odyssey - Eey and Ogigia , in Russian fairy tales - Buyan Island), and mythical continents that are also not marked on maps ( Atlantis , Pacifida , Arktida Lemuria ).
Content
Examples of ghost islands
- In ancient literature - Islands of the Blessed , Tula , Tazat .
- For a long time, Baja California was taken for the island .
- In September 1578, Martin Frobisher "discovered" the island of Buss .
- In the 15th century, the islands of Antilia , Roylo and Satan Island were often marked on the maps in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Iberian Peninsula .
- At the end of the 16th century, the island of Groclant was depicted west of Greenland .
- In the XVII century, near the Faroe Islands, the outlines of the island of Friesland were marked on maps.
- 300 km north of the Falkland Islands on maps of the 18th century. portrayed the nonexistent island of Pips . The islands of Aurora were placed in the same area.
- New South Greenland - "discovered" by the expedition of Morrell in 1823 in the Weddell Sea .
- A certain Land of Juan da Gama was depicted south of Kamchatka on the map of Guillaume Delil, which was used by Vitus Bering during the second Kamchatka expedition . Several weeks were spent searching for her - as a result of the expedition I had to winter in the Commander Islands , where Vitus Bering died of an illness.
- Kruzenshtern Reef , discovered in 1805 by Russian sailors, and then disappeared.
- Discovered in the first half of the 19th century in subantarctic waters, and then disappeared, the islands of Dowerty , Nimrod , Svein , Emerald and Thompson , the last of which apparently disappeared during a volcanic eruption in the 1890s.
- Back in Soviet times, the possibility of the existence of the undiscovered Sannikov Land in the Arctic Ocean was discussed.
- Reef Maria Teresa (Tabor Island, Maria Theresia Island) - was placed by cartographers at , was noted on most maps until the 1970s, on separate maps met until 2005 (in the USA). It is immortalized by Jules Verne in his novels “ Children of Captain Grant ” and “ Mysterious Island ”.
- Saber Island (Sandy) northwest of New Caledonia , presumably the result of a map error while copying. The University of Sydney expedition searched for him in 2012 and did not find it.
See also
- Lost continent
Notes
- ↑ Vladimir Shumilov. The history of the geographic and geological development of Siberia and the North of Russia . - Litres, 2017-09-05. - 515 p. - ISBN 9785040633128 .
Literature
- Henry Stommel Lost Islands: The Story of Islands That Have Vanished from Nautical Charts. University of British Columbia Press, 1984. ISBN 0-7748-0210-3
- Kuprin A.M. Word about the Map. - M .: Nedra, 1987 .-- 143 p.
- Ramsey R. Discoveries Never Been