photo credit: Aaron Escobar™

Can an island really move like the island(s) on Lost? Short answer yes. Maybe not through a donkey wheel in the bottom of a well, but an island can definitely move around.

The not so technical term is a “floating island” or tussocks, floatons, or sudds. They form when vegetation grows out from shore and eventually becomes buoyant and the roots can’t grab hold of the ground. A heavy wind can shear it off and set it adrift. They’re actually fairly common in lakes. Some are as large as a football field (or more) and can have trees and animal life.

Going bigger, are pumice rafts that can be created in a volcanic eruption. One raft formed by eruptions around Tonga near Fiji was 30 miles wide. That’s more than enough room for the passengers of flight 815, Jacob’s cabin and a few polar bears.

Prior to plate tectonics theory it was the popular scientific belief that life spread from continent to continent via very large islands formed from either from vegetation or volcanic activity. This theory may still explain the spread of some species post tectonics and ice ages.

Satellite imagery has taken some of the mystery out of finding these strange islands, but history is filled with interesting anecdotes and myths that may be based on truth. The island of Avalon from Arthurian legend may have been an actual place based on one of these floating islands. Numerous sea expeditions charted islands that were never located again.

So not only is a moving island a possibility, it’s a reality. The good news is you don’t have to crash land in the Pacific to find one much less spend a 3rd season going through pointless flashbacks. Here are a couple that are on the charts:

The Uros people and their (artificial) floating islands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uros

Island Pond Island in Springfield, Mass: Drifting into Debate

According to Wikipedia” “Micronations are entities that resemble independent nations or states but which are unrecognized by world governments or major international organizations.” The Platform in the picture above is actually the Nation of Sealand. It may seem that not much goes on in Sealand judging by the photo, but this former British fort has had a rocky national history. Helicopter Invasions, massive fires, border disputes with the British Government and at one point they even issued their own passports.

Check out Sealand’s National Website.

We’re going to be bringing you a strange geographic anomaly on a weekly basis, so watch out for more Weird Geography.

In the summer of 1997 NOAA recorded a mysterious sound in the ocean on several hydrophones. The sound was capable of being heard for over 5000 km. There was no known source. Its audio profile matched that of a biological (a living creature). But there is no known creature capable of producing that sound. Such a creature would be the largest living creature ever. Was it a geological event? Man made? Or something else…

The sound: Play the “Bloop”

The coordinates of the signal strangely match up with the final resting place of Cthulhu from the H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos, the sunken city of R’lyeh.

Wikipedia on the Bloop sound
Wikipedia on R’lyeh
Cthulhu Lives!

A 1909 edition of the Phoenix Gazette describes the discovery by the Smithsonian Institute of a mammoth cave system with the remnants of a civilization numbering 50,000 people. Granaries, tombs and even idols reminiscent of Buddha were allegedly found.

Of course there’s the problem that the Smithsonian claims to have never launched the expedition and no record of any of the explorers can be found. Was it a hoax? Or is there another Anasazi city waiting to be found somewhere in the Grand Canyon?

The original article
An investigation into the facts of the article
The Anasazi in Wikipedia

Exactly whose dream is Nara Dreamland in Japan? The now closed park has its own princess castle, Matterhorn ride, Jungle Cruise and many other eerily similar versions of famous Disney attractions. It’s also got a building covered in swastikas.
Two intrepid tourists visit it before it closed (or was it already closed!).
A brochure for the park (in Japanese).
Google maps satellite view.

Cincinnati does.

A journey to the center of the earth (beneath Cincinnati)
The official story from the man
Flickr photos