The Ghost Island of Google Maps
How a 19th-century mistake fooled modern satellite technology for decades.
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How a 19th-century mistake fooled modern satellite technology for decades.
Full transcript of The Ghost Island of Google Maps
In 2012, scientists sailed to a massive Pacific island, only to find absolutely nothing. For over a century, Sandy Island sat on global maps—even Google Earth. It was charted as a dark mass, the size of Manhattan. But when the research vessel arrived, the sonar showed only empty, bottomless blue. No land. No reef. Just miles of deep ocean. How did a phantom island fool the world's satellites? A single whaling ship made a mapping error in 1876. And for over a century, we simply copy-pasted a ghost.