In 2014 the Kiribati government announced to establish a 12-nautical-mile fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands (Caroline (commonly called Millennium), Flint, Vostok, Malden, and Starbuck). Vostok Island is designated as the Vostok Island Wildlife Sanctuary. American claims on the island were vacated in the Treaty of Tarawa in the same year. Vostok formed part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, until becoming a part of newly independent Kiribati in 1979. No evidence of permanent settlement has ever been found. It is unknown whether the island has ever been inhabited, although the presence of rats suggests that ancient Polynesians might have at least visited. Vostok was claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856, but was never mined for phosphate. The island was first sighted in 1820 by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named the island for his ship Vostok (the name means “East” in Russian). I think it may be because there’s not a human population there and the country that claims it has declared it a wildlife sanctuary, not wanting visitors to show up and mess things up. ![]() Until then, well, let your imagination run wild. Perhaps, this will remain an internet mystery that got everyone excited for a few days and then fizzled out. It’s difficult to say whether anyone ever will either. However, no one in a position of authority or geographical expertise has confirmed this explanation yet. This theory even has an explanation for why the island appears so black - they believe the dense vegetation there has created the “darkness ” zoomed out, the dark green is appearing black. According to them, it’s a representation of the Vostok Island from the Republic of Kiribati, an independent island nation in the central Pacific Ocean consisting of 32 atolls and one raised coral island. However, with the image making the rounds, some users pinpointed a specific location on the map. This theory originates from past evidence of Google Maps blurring “sensitive” geographical locations like military bases, prison courtyards, and well, islands like Moruroa - a tiny atoll in French Polynesia used for nuclear testing. So what you are seeing moving inward is artificial ocean color, real ocean with waves, beach, island,” they wrote. ![]() “he real answer is the blue color around the island is a painted-in color, so the oceans look uniform in the maps… Islands are added by erasing some of that blue to let the satellite image show through… Sometimes they do a sloppy job. It wouldn’t make sense for a natural formation to be black like that in such a shallow, small atoll/island,” one user commented.Īgreeing with them, another individual built on the theory further, stating that in censoring the area, Google Maps did a botched-up job. ![]() ![]() “My first thought was that it’s censored. Jokes (or not) aside, several internet users have been buying into the theory that it’s censored territory. Some believe it’s a “covered-up” Area 51 some are speculating it’s a portal to another universe (we can’t comment on whether it’s a serious speculation), while some others believe it’s connecting the real world with the fictional universe - by being an island from the TV series Lost. Since the image began gaining traction online, netizens have been putting their theories forward on what the black triangle could be. One Reddit user joked: “God dropped his guitar pick,” while another one suggested: “It’s a little Illuminatti.” Many have unleashed their inner sleuths, inner conspiracy theorists, what have you, to try and solve the mystery of what the black, triangular shape in the map refers to. Is it a black hole in the middle of the ocean? Is it a volcano? Is it a portal to a newer, better world? No one knows. People from across the world are baffled. An image of a blacked-out island on Google Maps that has been doing the rounds on the internet.
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