What are phantom settlements and phantom islands?

Phantom settlements and islands are locations that appear on maps and charts despite not actually existing. They can originate from accidental mapping errors, intentional copyright traps known as Mountweazels, or outdated information like Sandy Island and Sannikov Land. Occasionally, a phantom settlement can even become real when people build structures matching the fictitious map entry.

What we know

• Phantom settlements, or paper towns, are settlements that appear on maps but do not actually exist due to accidents or copyright traps. [1, 2]
• Agloe, New York, was invented as a copyright trap on a 1930s map and later became a real location when a general store was built there under that name. [2]
• Sandy Island was a phantom island charted near New Caledonia for over a century before an Australian research ship 'undiscovered' it in 2012. [3]
• Sannikov Land was a phantom island in the Arctic Ocean whose supposed existence became a 19th-century Russian myth. [5]

Where to go next

• how it workedHow do copyright traps work on maps?
• a case in pointWhat happened when Sandy Island was undiscovered?
• what caused itWhy are sensitive locations hidden on maps?
• the bigger pictureWhat are paper towns in popular culture?
• whenHow did Sannikov Land influence 19th-century exploration?
• an unexpected connectionHow can a fake town become real?A town originally invented purely as a fake map entry to catch copyright violators genuinely came into existence when people built a store bearing its name.

Sources

• [1]phantom settlement (Wikidata Q7180622) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Phantom settlement · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Sandy Island, New Caledonia · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Cartographic censorship · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Sannikov Land · CC BY-SA 4.0

Your path

1. Where are cinnabar mercury deposits found worldwide?
2. /What are phantom settlements and phantom islands?