Sandy Island
Sign in to saveAlso known as Sandy Island, New Caledonia, Sable Island
phantom island in New Caledonia
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- island
- Country
- France
- Located in
- New Caledonia
- Body of water
- Pacific Ocean
- Image
- Sandy Island (Alleged Location) 2002-01-10, Landsat 7 ETM+.png
- Width
- 5
- Length
- 25
- Significant event
- pumice raft
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Sandy Island
- not found in
- nautical chart
- native label
- Sandy Island
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Sandy Island (sometimes labelled in French Île de Sable, and in Spanish Isla Arenosa) is a phantom island that was charted for over a century as being located near the French territory of New Caledonia between the Chesterfield Islands and Nereus Reef in the eastern Coral Sea. The island was included on many maps and nautical charts from as early as the late 19th century. It was removed from French hydrographic charts in 1974. The island gained wide media and public attention in November 2012 when the R/V Southern Surveyor, an Australian research ship, passed through the area and "undiscovered" it. The island was quickly removed from many maps and data sets, including those of the National Geographic Society and Google Maps.
History
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sandy Island” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.