In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, one Google Maps user discovered something alarming. After Reddit user Kokoblocks posted an image of a black blob in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in October, conspiracy theories flooded the site. The dark blotch was nowhere near any major piece of land, and it appeared to be about 56 acres in diameter. In reality, Vostok Island is an uninhabited island belonging to the Republic of Kiribati that measures 56 acres.
The image of the black island, which was subsequently shared on Reddit with the title “what the F**K this looks nothing like an island” has raised a storm of comments. The picture sparked a firestorm of discussion on the social media network Reddit.
People were speculating about what the black hole in the Pacific Ocean was immediate. Some people thought that the black spot might be “the island from Lost,” a popular television series. Others wondered whether the Bermuda Triangle, which lies between Florida and Carolina in the Atlantic, had somehow traveled around the world to reach the Pacific Ocean.
The truth is, the “hole” in the ocean was actually Vostok island. It’s situated hundreds of miles away from Tahiti, which is a more well-known vacation spot.
“What you see as black is actually very dark green,” said one Redditor. “It’s a very dense forest made up of Pisonia trees.”
Some of these trees can grow to be as tall as one hundred feet. They can also grow so close together that they appear like one solid color when looked at from above.
“My first thought was that it’s censored,” said Redditor Jazzlike_Log_709. “It wouldn’t make sense for a natural formation to be black like that in such a shallow, small atoll/island.”
According to Live Science, Google Maps usually blurs out military bases and other classified locations. However, the black spot on this particular island was not caused by a blur; instead, it was created by a close crop of tall trees on the remote Pacific island.
The black hole in the ocean (Vostok Island, Oceania) is about 4,000 miles east of Australia and 1,500 miles west of Hawaii. The southern Line Islands include Malden, Starbuck, Flint, and Caroline.
While exploring the Pacific Ocean’s southern waters, a group of Russian explorers discovered Vostok in 1820. The name of the island is derived from the ship they were sailing on at the time. The United States declared the island as their own in 1856 due to all of the guano present. Guano is a polite term for bat manure, and this excrement was used as popular fertilizer during pre-Civil War years. Later, the British claimed control over this small plot of land before it became Kiribati in 1979 as an independent country. Vostok has more recently become a wildlife sanctuary and therefore cannot be touched without permission.
Enric Sala, a marine conservationist, led an expedition to Vostok in 2009 to study its fish populations and document its natural resources.
