Phantom island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Phantom islands are islands that are believed to exist and appear on maps for a period of time (sometimes centuries) but are later removed after they are proved nonexistent or the general population no longer believes they exist.

Some phantom islands arose through the mislocation of actual islands: for instance, Pepys Island was actually a misidentification of the Falkland Islands. The Baja California peninsula appears on some early maps as an island but was later discovered to be attached to the mainland of North America. And Thule was perhaps actually discovered in the 4th century BCE but was lost, and then later reidentified by ancient explorers and geographers as Shetland, Iceland, Scandinavia, or even as nonexistent. A few phantom islands may have been actual islands or sand banks that are no longer above water, while others appear to have always been mythical.

As opposed to phantom islands, lost lands are islands or continents believed by some to have existed during pre-history but have disappeared as a result of catastrophic geological phenomena or slowly rising sea levels since the end of the last Ice Age.

[edit] List of phantom islands

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

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