What island is appearing and disappearing?

And this intriguing tale of a 'phantom island' sure is one of the most baffling finds on Google Maps. A mystery island that appears and disappears on Google Maps. A strange strip of land, known as Sandy Island, has been charted since 1774 as being located in New Caledonia in the South Pacific.



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Barrier islands are basically perpetually rolling over, and sometimes disappear and reappear, or split in two, or migrate up a coast. This happens with atolls, too—waves and storms and wind move sand and sediment around.

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text: The island of Bora Boa, a vacationers dream, is slowly sinking. According to Internationalcuruit.com, the tropical island is sinking at a rate of one centimeter per century. And for an island that is estimated to be four million years old, that is an alarming rate.

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Truth is, uninhabited islands remain uninhabited for a reason – if not, people would have colonized them by now. There are more than 2 million uninhabited islands in the world. Some are protected as nature reserves, while some are owned by private individuals or groups.

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According to Britannica, an island is a mass of land that is both “entirely surrounded by water” and also “smaller than a continent.” By that definition, Australia can't be an island because it's already a continent.

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