Google Earth, the CIA, and National Geographic all once trusted that an island existed in the Coral Sea until it vanished in 2012, when an expedition proved a single 19th-century whaling ship’s mistake had been quietly copied onto official maps for more than a hundred years

A phantom island persisted on the world's most authoritative maps for 136 years, sustained by nothing more than a single nineteenth-century mariner's unverified claim. The post Google Earth, the CIA, and National Geographic all once trusted that an island existed in the Coral Sea until it vanished in 2012, when an expedition proved a single 19th-century whaling ship’s mistake had been quietly copied onto official maps for more than a hundred years appeared first on Space Daily .