If you're an explorer or cartographer, there is nothing more exciting for you than discovering new land. How would you feel if you had to tell the world that an Island that had been on the map for years didn't exist?
A team of Australian scientists has had to do just that. The island is (was) named Sandy Island and it exists on a multitude of maps between Australia and New Caledonia.
They team became suspicious when they sailed past where the island was supposed to be and they found nothing but ocean. Their maps showed that there should be a large island there. The island has supposedly appeared in maps since the year 2000. We've talked before about how map makers include phantom streets to catch copycats, but that isn't standard practice with nautical charts. Whatever the case the team says they had a good laugh at Google maps over the incident.