The dark secrets of the drifting Sable Island. Scary Sable Island (15 photos) Northern Cemetery of the Atlantic
It seems that the time when humanity sacredly trusted myths has gone forever. To explain something incomprehensible, we have science, thanks to which the place of the gods on the celestial chariots was taken by aliens, and the tambourines of shamans, who predicted the weather, were replaced by meteorological satellites. But, despite all the achievements of progress, human nature is still attracted by the incomprehensible and mystical.
On the verge of fiction
2012 - the film “Life of Pi” was released, based on the novel of the same name by Yann Martel. This adventure drama (which, by the way, won four Oscars) depicts a mysterious carnivorous island located somewhere in the middle of Pacific Ocean. According to the plot of the book, during the day this island was heavenly place, and at night it turns into a trap for all living things. After sunset, the algae that made up the island begin to secrete acid, and the lake located here becomes an acidic vat, digesting all living things. The only salvation was in the treetops, where they could wait out the night while the surface of the island bled gastric juice.
Fortunately, the movie predator island is a fiction, but, as you know, there is some truth in every fairy tale. For example, a thousand miles from Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean is located, which at first glance is a tropical paradise with lush vegetation, picturesque lagoons, reefs, white sand and everything else that attracts tourists. However, this island is uninhabited, and among those who have visited it, there is an opinion that Palmyra has a living and, without a doubt, black aura. External prosperity here is very deceptive: the weather changes instantly, calm lagoons are teeming with sharks, algae release toxic substances, and the surface of the island is full of poisonous insects. Even the fish that live in the creeks and lakes of the island are inedible, and a feeling of strange melancholy and hopelessness hangs in the air.
During World War II, the Americans used Palmyra as a springboard for an attack on Japan, but according to the soldiers who stayed there for several months, island life seemed like hell to them. The landing force was plagued by a series of mysterious suicides. The psychologically exhausted unit turned into a gang of deserters that wandered around the island and did God knows what. The reason for the unexpected soldiers' madness remained a mystery.
Ship Devourer
IN North Atlantic one hundred and ten miles southeast of the Canadian port of Halifax is located Sable Island, which is deservedly considered the most dangerous island ever charted. The peculiarity of Sable is that it is a sandbank, which, as a result of the meeting of the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current, moves at a speed of 200-230 meters per year! Over the past two hundred years, Sable has “sailed” forty kilometers from Canada, although, of course, this “swim” should not be taken literally. The fact is that the western part of the island is constantly being washed away by waves, and the eastern, on the contrary, is overgrown with sand, like living tissue. In fact, these are quicksand in the ocean, and any ship washed ashore disappears without a trace after 2-3 months. The exact number of ships that hit the damned piece of land is unknown, but it definitely exceeded a hundred.
The island's main killer weapon is that it has an almost flat surface, and it is almost impossible to see it from the sea, especially during the storm season with fifteen-meter waves. According to legend, the sand that covers the island is like a chameleon, and even in clear weather is colored the color of the surrounding ocean. The ability to mimicry is characteristic only of living organisms, which led many sailors to think that the island, with its quicksand and sharp reefs, was “hunting” passing ships.
The Sable was first applied to official maps in the 16th century. At that time the length of the island was almost 200 miles. In the 19th century, scientists assumed that Sable, which had shrunk almost 10 times over the previous 300 years, would soon completely disappear from the surface of the earth, but this did not happen. Moreover, over the past 100 years it has increased by two miles.
Almost every island on the planet is the surface part of a mountain, which, in turn, is located on tectonic plates. Islands cover our planet like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, moving at speeds of several millimeters per year. Sable's travel speed is 100,000 times greater, suggesting that the island has no physical connection to any of Earth's tectonic plates. Numerous questions, to which there are still no intelligible answers, have pushed some scientists to the sensational and, at first glance, completely crazy idea that Sable is something like a living organism, which is based on silicon, and not carbon, like all living beings on our planet. If you agree with this theory, then you can try to explain where the sand comes from on the eastern part of the island, while the western part is constantly eroded by a strong ocean current. It is possible that sand (aka silicon) is the waste product of an insatiable ship devourer, which is what Sable appears to be.
It is curious that shortly before the start of World War II, the island was given to researchers new riddle. In the spring of 1939, storms of unprecedented force raged in this area, removing hundreds of tons of coastal sand, as a result of which a hole with the skeletons of eight ships formed on the island. It was in this pit, a hundred miles from Canada, that the remains of a Roman galley from ancient times were found! While the members of the scientific expedition sent to the island were arguing about the find, another storm broke out, and the tomb, which had been opened for a short time, was again covered with tons of damp sand.
The Curse of Bulawan Island
Bulawan - a small piece of land in the Banda Sea, which belongs to Indonesia, has long gained fame as a bad and dangerous place. The island became widely known after the plane of American pilot Willy Van der Haage crashed in its vicinity in 1989. The pilot was able to eject, but for the next 3 years he had the opportunity to be in Robinson's shoes, making many amazing discoveries.
During his forced confinement, Van der Haage crawled the length and breadth of the tropical island; his attention was especially drawn to the deep wells, clearly of artificial origin, which led to dry underground caves. Having descended into one of these caves, the American discovered a truly priceless treasure of gold coins, which, as is known from legends and horror stories, rarely brings happiness and longevity.
The treasure, found by an unwitting researcher, was in four clay jugs, sealed with natural asphalt. Inside the vessels were faceless, perfectly round coins, more like polished lenses. After the gold was delivered to America, an expert commission of numismatists and specialists in ancient culture could not determine the nationality of the coins, which gave reason to assume that these coins were a means of payment on the territory of some high-tech lost civilization, maybe even Atlantis.
The stay on the island ended as unexpectedly as it began: an Australian destroyer passing by saw a distress signal, thanks to which the missing pilot was finally rescued. Upon his return, the American gave a couple of dozen interviews in which he said that Bulavan is a powerful anomalous zone, and the cause of the plane crash, after which he became a captive of the island, was powerful geomagnetic deviations.
From newspaper articles, the public learned about the gold coins found, and detachments of black treasure hunters poured into Bulavan. The wells, adits, and caves of the island were repeatedly ransacked by lovers of quick money, and it should be noted that many did not return empty-handed. Only now treasure hunters came across not gold coins, but amazing silver bars in the shape of horse heads. These zoomorphic silver, according to scientists, were used in sacred rituals of a civilization unknown to us. But the most amazing thing is that there are no traces of artificial processing on the ingots, and we can say that this is nothing more than a masterpiece of the anomalous zone of Bulavan Island.
As for Willy Van der Haage, after undergoing retraining, he returned to his favorite job - flying, and, probably, this story would have had a happy ending if the pilot’s disfigured body had not been discovered in his own home in March 1993. The motive for the murder has not been fully clarified, but the police hastened to attribute everything to a banal robbery.
It is worth noting that since 1999, almost all the diggers who removed precious loot from the island were hanged, poisoned or shot! It’s simply ridiculous to talk about banal robberies here.
Drifting Nightmare
The islands of Palmyra, Sable, Bulavan are just a small list of mysterious, cursed islands fraught with danger for careless travelers. But the various anomalous zones that are shrouded in a fog of secrets and mysteries are nothing compared to the main island on this list, which is more than real, and whose appetite for absorbing living flesh is much worse than the figment of Yann Martel’s imagination.
As sad as it sounds, the first place in the list of damned killer islands is occupied by a man-made creation - Garbage Island, which drifts between America and Eurasia. Currently, a huge landfill in the North Pacific Ocean is twice the size of the United States and is rightfully called the “Eastern Garbage Patch.”
The basis of the giant floating landfill is plastic waste, which is thrown into the ocean in huge quantities. The weight of this dump is already estimated at 100 mils. tons, and this figure continues to grow at a tremendous pace. At the same time, 70% of waste sinks to the bottom, so Garbage Island is just the tip of the iceberg.
Only two countries in the Pacific region are Australia and New Zealand– carry out effective control over plastic recycling, while advanced Asian states have designed and began serial production of equipment that processes all ship debris (plastic bottles, bags and other waste) into powder. Next, the shredded plastic, visually invisible to environmental services, is dumped into the ocean, saving enormous amounts of money.
The trouble is that over the past couple of decades we have become accustomed to such concepts as “humanitarian” and “ecological disaster”. It seems to us that if something like this happens not in the next block, then the consequences are unlikely to affect our own skin. However, Garbage Island is a disaster not of a local, but of a planetary scale. The worst thing is that this is no longer just a polluted aquatic environment, but a real cemetery of marine life. Every year, about a million birds and a hundred thousand mammals die from plastic waste dumped in the Pacific Ocean.
This happens according to the following scheme: under the influence of sunlight, plastic begins to disintegrate into small fractions without losing its polymer structure, then fish, jellyfish and other inhabitants of the ocean, confusing the waste with plankton, begin to eat it. Birds and mammals swallow larger things: lighters, bottle caps, syringes and toothbrushes. Of course, the “plastic diet” leads to death, but some of the commercial fish poisoned by chemicals still ends up on the average person’s plate.
How many of you would like to taste the meat of cattle raised on a farm near Chernobyl? Fish with a belly stuffed with plastic is little better, but the average consumer rarely thinks about what he puts in his mouth. Even when the obvious is explained to us, we pretend not to hear, or hope at chance, believing that misfortunes will affect anyone, but not us.
This kind of garbage islands, albeit smaller ones, exist in all oceans. We can only admit that these drifting killers are already stretching their bony fingers far into the interior of the continents. And this is just the beginning...
Sable Island located 110 miles southeast of Halifax, near the mainland shoal, in the southern part Atlantic Ocean. This is where the warm waters of the Gulf Stream meet the cold Labrador Current.
In its shape, Sable Island really resembles a saber or tentacles, depending on what you see. It stretches from east to west for 24 miles. Experienced sailors are mysterious and mysterious place nicknamed " tomb of the Atlantic».
Puzzles Saber Islands scientists have been interested in for a long time. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was determined that the western part of the island was subject to a strong constant current. Multi-ton waves driven strong wind, without rest, they beat on the shore of this island. But East End The shores, like an antipode, are always quiet and calm. New sand deposits are constantly growing there, which, logically, have nowhere to come from, but they keep coming and coming...
The most interesting thing is that the size of the island has hardly changed over the years. On the one hand, the island is eroded by waves, on the other, it grows due to sand deposits! And over the years, this island, like a tired snake, slowly moves eastward. Researchers were able to find out that over the past 200 years, Saber Island has quietly and unnoticed passed more than ten nautical miles of the world's oceans! The island is moving at speed 200 meters per year!
But this is not the only thing that surprised scientists so much. As a rule, any island is the top of a mountain. The mountain itself rests on one of the giant tectonic plates that form our planet. It would seem that Sable Island should drift at a speed no greater than the speed of movement of the tectonic plate. The average speed of movement of a tectonic plate is several millimeters per year. The movement of Saber Island is much faster. 
In addition to its high-speed movement, Saber Island is also famous as a kind of quagmire. The fact is that one part of the island is covered by quicksand. Sailors claim that these sands are practically indistinguishable from sea water, taking on the color of a wave, they mislead sailors. The treacherous sands of this island swallow up approaching ships. It is known for certain that the Sable Islands floating towards the shore big ships(100-120 meters long, with a displacement of five thousand tons) were completely immersed in the sands for two to three months.
Throughout the year, there is terrible bad weather over Saber Island. Just one month (July) things are more or less good here weather. During this period, the island is favorable for mooring ships and boats. True, there are not so many people who want to visit this island; there are too many shoals and sharp reefs in the area. Surprisingly, these dangers can also hide, taking on the color of sea water. 
Sable Island is now part of Canada. It is inhabited, 15-25 people live here. These are workers and specialists of the Canadian Department of Transport, monitoring the island's hydrometeorological center, radio station and lighthouses. Their responsibilities include saving people, shipwrecked within the island.
Refers to inhabited islands. There are 5 people living on Sable who work at the meteorological station and monitor the lighthouse. Note that previously the staff was larger and numbered 15-25 people. Since over time the danger from Sable ceased, the contingent was reduced.
Geographic coordinates of the island:43°55?57? With. w. 59°52?48? h. d.
Many call this place not just mysterious, but damned. Believe me, there are reasons for this. No one can say with certainty how many ships were lost here. Some put the figure at 350, others about 500. The important thing is that for many Sable was the last thing they saw in their lives. " Cemetery of the Atlantic"- the sailors call him. Inexplicably, the sand on the shores of the “living island” has the property of “adjusting” to the color of the sea waves. This optical effect is the main reason for the death of ships. The ships (especially in bad weather) crashed into the coastline at all speeds, and until the collision, the crew thought that there was only a vast ocean ahead...
Some lucky ones managed to survive and lived on the island for some time. But the stranded ships had the same fate - they were swallowed up by quicksand. In two months even from large ships there was no trace left! (hence the phrase “ ship eater»).
The etymology of the island's name also causes a lot of controversy. British geographers claim that it comes from the English. “sable”, which translates as “sable”. Let us immediately note that sables are not and have not been found here. Most likely, it was taken as a basis that the island somewhat resembled this animal (as if in a jump).
A separate group of etymologists believes that the “fault” of this name is a historical mistake. In their opinion, before the island was called Saber, but some unlucky cartographer wrote another instead of one letter (“R” > “L”). The reasons for such a campaign are obvious. Translated from English, the word “sabre” means “saber” (this is already better than sable). Well, the last option is taken from explanatory dictionary. The name of the island can be translated as gloomy, scary or black (poetic form).
By the way, about poets. Sable's stories and "reputation" have inspired many writers, including Thomas-Chandler Haliburton, James MacDonald, Thomas H. Ruddal and others.
STORY. LEGENDS
Not only the etymology of Sable's name is controversial, but also the name of the discoverer. Most researchers (especially from Norway) agree that the Vikings made the first landing on the island more than a thousand years ago. Brave bearded sailors visited these waters much earlier than Columbus!
Scientists from France do not agree with the “Viking version” and claim: ordinary fishermen from Normandy were the first to land here at the beginning of the 16th century.
The British, accustomed to being original, list their whalers who sailed near Newfoundland as discoverers.
The fourth group of scientists refutes all three versions and says that Sable simply did not exist 500 years ago! It was 5 centuries ago that a piece of land separated from the mainland and began to “float” into the open ocean. But when asked how this is possible, they shrug their shoulders...
But we need names, not just theories. Therefore, we will consider him the discoverer of the “living island” Jean de Lery(no one else has more arguments in favor).
The traveler is known for living with the Indians for many years South America. And it was Leri who organized the expedition from Europe to Nova Scotia (then it was called the “Land of the Bretons”). And everything with the name is logical: Jean de Lery called the island “Sable” - “sand” in French.
There is evidence that the shores of the island were often visited by sea pirates (perhaps they even hid treasure). The robbers specially lit fires to attract ships with well-stocked holds.
In the 90s of the 16th century, Sable became a hard laborer. The fact is that, returning after an unsuccessful expedition to France, the Marquis De La Roche decided to “settle” almost 50 people (all criminals) on the island. Probably, in order to somehow assuage his conscience, the captain gave the newly minted islanders 5 dozen sheep. 7 years passed and the “settlers” were remembered (they probably didn’t even have time to blink an eye). The king decided to pardon them and in 1605, 11 prisoners returned to their native France (the rest died). You'll never guess what 5 people said! - " Your Majesty, allow us to return to the island..."The king gave his go-ahead." A French colony has appeared on Sable and has saved the crew of an English ship to its credit!
After this, permanent residents appeared on the “ship devourer” only at the end of the 19th century. The British were tired of losing ships, and it was decided to build a lighthouse on Sable (1873). The settlers served it, and when a disaster occurred, they acted as rescuers.
In 1867, Sable Island became part of Canada. Over the course of 5 years, the Canadians built two lighthouses (eastern and western). Then a radio beacon appeared. These days, Sable is a protected area.
The first “devouring” of a ship by Sable was recorded back in 1583. Then an English ship called “Delight”, part of Humphy Gilbert’s expedition, rammed the sands of the island due to poor visibility. The last disaster is considered to be a shipwreck in 1947: the steamship Manhasset could not avoid a collision with the island. The entire crew was saved. However, we managed to find information according to which in 1999 the yacht Merrimac “met” with the sands of the “living island” (the navigation instruments malfunctioned). The three-person crew was not injured. The fate of the yacht is unknown.
If you want to get acquainted with the history of Sable Island in detail, we recommend reading books such as “Sable Island: Its History and Phenomena” (1894, George Petterson); Sable Island, Fatal and Fertile Crescent (1974) and Sable Island Shipwrecks: Disaster and Survival at the North Atlantic Graveyard (1994) by Leal Campbell; Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island (2004, Marc de Villiers). ©Added 04/18/2015 Lev Skryagin, a Soviet sailor and writer, also mentions the island in his book “Secrets of Sea Disasters”. Here is an excerpt from his book:
Were the Romans on Sable?!
This story dates back to the late 30s. last century. Near our Sable, bad weather raged for several days in a row; the storms were unusually strong even for these places. Giant waves literally “shaved” the island, removing balls of sand from it. Only God knows how many hundreds of tons were washed away from the shores. When the ocean had played enough, a scientific expedition arrived on the island. She discovered a huge pit in which there were eight ships that at different times were buried in the sands of Sable. The surprise of the researchers was endless when, among other ships, the remains of...a Roman galley were discovered! There has been debate in scientific circles about where the ancient galley could have come from here. The ocean put an end to the dispute: a new storm covered the “grave of ships” with sand. The question remains open to this day...
Aliens are close...
In the 90s of the 20th century, a new hypothesis was voiced regarding the origin of Sable Island. This time experts in the field of anomalous phenomena showed up. " The island is not just anomalous zone The Earth is a living organism, and not of Earthly origin!"(D. Pable, W. Laines). A bold assumption, isn't it? Of course, no one undertook to explain the principles of “life” and functioning of the bioboard. It was believed that the basis for the NPO (unidentified floating object) is silicon (Silicium). Let's remember the school chemistry course... What is silicon dioxide? It's sand! Ordinary sand, of which there is so much on Sable...
Could Sable be a “research laboratory” for our space neighbors? Who knows...
Spirits of evil
A short fact. To this day, if you ask Nova Scotians what they think about Sable Island, they will say something like this: “It’s an island of ghosts. The spirits of evil live there."
CLIMATE
The climate of Sable Island is humid continental. In autumn and winter it is almost constantly stormy here, and the waves sometimes reach 16 meters! The “Graveyard of the Atlantic” is located in a place where the warm Gulf Stream and the cool current of Labrador meet. As a result, there is frequent fog over the island. Sometimes there are category 3 winds (according to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane classification). Don't think that it's always harsh here. Sable's climate will be milder than Nova Scotia's. In winter, the temperature usually does not drop below -13 ° C (average +5 to -5 ° C). In summer, the thermometer can show as high as 25 ° C (August).
RELIEF. FLORA AND FAUNA
Relief of Sable Island almost flat. Sometimes the sand dunes reach 35 meters (the height is not constant due to frequent winds).
At the beginning of the article we mentioned the “movement” of the island. Now more about this.
Experts have long noticed a strange phenomenon - the island is moving eastward at a speed of approximately 220 m per year and “goes” into the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. In the 19th century, geographers even predicted its complete disappearance. But nothing like that happened! Moreover, the movement continues. Who knows, maybe one day Sable will make it to Portugal?! :fellow: Sable contradicts the laws of geology. All geologists scratch their heads when asked about a “living island.” Of course, it is generally accepted that the Earth’s tectonic plates, if they move, do so with maximum speed a couple of millimeters in 1 year (in rare cases they talk about centimeters), and here two hundred meters. What are your thoughts on this matter? After all, no one will deny that the islands of the world are the tops of seamounts that are located on a tectonic plate?
A rational explanation for the phenomenon of the “living island” may be the fact that from the west Sable is constantly eroded by sea currents and waves - the sand is washed away and it is transferred to east coast. But this is all debatable...
Now about clearer and non-controversial points. Almost half of Sable's territory is covered with vegetation. 175 species of different plants have taken root on it. You can often find honkenia butterflower, allspice, shrubs, rose hips, orchids (6 species!), wild peas, etc. Trees don't grow here. All landing attempts ended in failure. The federal government attempted to stabilize the area by planting nearly 80,000 trees, but to no avail. Although there is still one tree. This is an ordinary pine, planted back in the 50s. last century. Its height is no more than 3 meters.
Over the entire period of observations, more than 300 species of birds were seen on the island. Waterfowl (for example, Arctic tern) feel comfortable here. Common buntings (Passerculus sandwichensis), sandpipers, and great sea gulls can be seen.
©Added 02/06/2016Among the fauna, it is worth noting large colonies of common and gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) - they have a mating season on Sable. The Guinness Book of Records notes that it is on Sable that the largest colony of gray seals is located in winter: about 100 thousand individuals come here annually for “mating meetings”.
In winter and early spring, ringed seals and crested seals are found. Zoologists claim that Greenland sharks and white sharks sometimes visit the coast of the island.
The “main” animals (and also the only land mammals other than humans) remain horses. According to our data, there are now about 320 horses on Sable. Some of them are tamed by the island's caretakers. It is generally accepted that animals appeared on the island at the end of the 18th century. They most likely came here from one of the ships that was buried here. The odd-toed ungulates not only survived - they managed to fully adapt to the harsh conditions here. In the 60s Canada took wild horses and ponies under its protection.
As mentioned earlier, the island has an elongated shape. It is approximately 42 km in length and does not exceed 1.5 in width. Such outlines are difficult to see from a long distance, because sand dunes predominate here, unable to protrude high above the horizon. Frequent winds constantly blow the sand, causing maximum height Sable does not exceed 35 meters. Mysterious Island It is also difficult to see in the ocean because the sands tend to take on the color of the water surface. This visual effect confuses ships. 
Another feature of a piece of land is its ability to move, and the speed is high for normal movement under the influence of changes in the tectonic field. The Sable moves east at a speed of approximately 200 m per year, which is another reason for shipwrecks. Scientists hypothesize that this mobility is explained by the sandy base of the island. Light rock is continually washed away from one side and carried to the other side of Sable Island, resulting in a slight shift.
History of the Lost Ships
The nomadic island became the site of a shipwreck of a huge number of ships, which, without noticing land, ran aground and sank. The official number of dead ships is 350, but there is an opinion that this figure has already exceeded half a thousand. It is not for nothing that the names “Ship Eater” and “Graveyard of the Atlantic” have taken root among the people. 
The team living on the island is always ready to save the next ship. Previously, horses, more like large ponies, helped pull ships. They ended up on Sable many years ago after another shipwreck. Today a helicopter comes to the rescue, however, shipwrecks have practically stopped.
The sinking of the passenger steamer State of Virginia, which occurred in 1879, is considered the largest disaster. There were 129 passengers on board, not counting the crew. Almost everyone was saved, but the ship sank to the bottom. The girl, the youngest of the travelers, received another name in honor of her happy rescue - Nellie Sable Bagley Hord. 
Tourists rarely travel to Sable Island, as there are practically no attractions here. In addition to the surrounding area, you can take photos with lighthouses and a monument to sunken boats. It was erected from masts collected from wreck sites.
Such an unusual island has rich history, and a lot interesting facts and fictions associated with it:
- local residents say that ghosts are found here, since the moving island has become the place of death for a huge number of people;
- V currently 5 people permanently live on the island, previously the team was larger, and the population was up to 30 people;
- over the years of Sable's existence, only 2 people were born here;
- this amazing place is rightly called “Treasure Island”, because in its sands and coastal waters you can find ancient relics left after shipwrecks. It is not surprising that each inhabitant has his own unique collection of various trinkets, often expensive.
The nomadic Sable Island is an amazing natural phenomenon, but it was responsible for the death of hundreds of sea vessels and thousands of people, which is why it received notoriety. Until now, even with the appropriate equipment on ships to avoid shipwrecks, captains try to navigate their route around the unfortunate place.
December 18, 2013Sable Island, owned by Canada, is one of the most mysterious, enigmatic and strange places on the map of the Earth. It is located near Halifax, a Canadian port in the north Atlantic Ocean. It is at this point that the warm Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador Current.
Translation of the name of the island from different languages will sound like “sand”, “black, mourning color”. And the people of Canada call it nothing more than “octopus tentacles.” Strange…
The size and shape of Sable Island are also special. It resembles a crescent moon that is just over 40 km long. Its greatest width is approximately 1.5 km.
Mysteries of the nomadic Sable Island
Cursed island, ship killer, ship devourer, treacherous place - these are the epithets this small island. What's the matter? It turns out that this narrow strip of land is constantly moving at an incredible speed - almost 200 meters per year! The island itself is often covered in thick fog. Low and flat, hidden in the darkness, it seems to be waiting for prey, hiding behind the waters of the cold ocean. During a strong storm and high waves, it is completely impossible to notice the ghost island.
On Sable Island, sand can change its color to match the color of the ocean waters. This is another incredible feature of the strange island. The contours of the island are constantly changing, because a strong current erodes the sand on one side and washes it on the other. This is the reason for the high speed of the island's movement in an easterly direction. Geologists are at a loss. Such a movement is nonsense... After all, Sable is located on a powerful tectonic plate that drifts only millimeters per year! It turns out that this island is moving faster than the ocean floor! It is still unclear why this happens.
"Graveyard of the Atlantic" is the second name for the ominous Sable Island. There have been more than 300 shipwrecks near the island. If a ship washed up on this piece of land, a terrible fate awaited it. The quicksand of the nomadic island swallowed the ship within a couple of months. The landscape of the island is quite gloomy. Sometimes Sable, as if wanting to bring terror to the world around her, returns the remains of ships to the surface. From somewhere they reappear on the surface of the island.
Is there life on the ominous Sable Island?
Only grass and rare low plants grow on the island. All the trees planted here died. Here live wild horses, similar to ponies, of which there are about three hundred, and a large colony of rare seals - tevyak. Wild animals have adapted to the fact that there is only quicksand and the ocean around. At the beginning of 1960, the state took the inhabitants of the island under its protection. And now this amazing creation of nature is national treasure and a protected area. Therefore, you can visit the nomadic Sable Island only after receiving special permission.
Life on the treacherous island, of course, is not easy and dangerous. There are only no more than 30 people here permanently. These are employees of the meteorological station. They are trying to prevent new shipwrecks in these ominous waters. Canadian authorities have taken measures to improve shipping safety. Several lighthouses were built. After ensuring more or less normal visibility near the banks of the Sable terrible disasters stopped at the island.
Sable Island, this strange and mysterious creation of nature, steadily continues its movement. For what purpose, where and under the influence of what factors, in addition to the currents known to scientists, this island, more like an incomprehensible mysterious creature, is moving, no one can yet answer. Researchers continue to study this phenomenon, but there is still a long way to go to unravel the secrets of the nomadic island...
Nomadic Sable Island photo
