This is the second decade of the twenty-first century, and you might think that any piece of land on our "blue ball" has long been explored far and wide. However, this is a misconception. Undoubtedly, man managed to study most of his planet, but this does not mean at all that there are no places left on Earth that do not conceal amazing mysteries that invariably baffle scientists.
About Sable Island
One of these places is Sable Island in the north Atlantic Ocean. Today it is considered part of Canada and is located one hundred and eighty kilometers southeast of the coast of Nova Scotia. The sable has a crescent shape. Its length is about forty-two kilometers, and its width is about one and a half kilometers. The island is home to an average of five people year-round who are employees of the local meteorological station.
Among the vegetation, only grass and rare low-growing shrubs are found here. At one time they tried to plant trees on Sable, but all of them died as soon as possible. The island is home to a well-known wild horse population of about three hundred. It is believed that they were brought here at the end of the eighteenth century by the Franco-Acadians. In addition, the largest colony of long-faced seals on the planet is located here. In 1960, the Canadian government decided to start protecting horses and seals, so it recognized this area as a nature reserve, allowing visits only with special permission.
Weather anomalies on an unusual island
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But what is so unusual and mysterious about Sable?
Let's start with the fact that two powerful Atlantic currents - the icy waters of the Arctic and the warm Gulf Stream - join here off the coast. Therefore, numerous eddies constantly revolve near the island, and storms here almost all year round. The weather, so disgusting for humans, recedes only in one month - in July. As if on command, the wind and rain stop, the clouds dissipate, and the days suddenly become surprisingly fine. The sun is shining, a pleasant breeze is blowing. Scientists still cannot determine why this is happening.
By the way, only at this time of the year Sable ceases to be impregnable and allows people to land on it, but only on boats and only on the northern side, where there are few underwater rocks.
An island that moves and changes
Amazingly, this piece of land in the ocean does not stand still, but is constantly in motion. He floats east at a speed of two hundred meters a year. Over the past century, Sable has traveled twenty kilometers this way! On maps of the eighteenth century, the island was designated a few degrees north and much closer to the mainland. Topographers have long despaired of compiling an accurate map of this region of the Atlantic, since the island outright refuses to have a permanent location.
As you know, almost all the islands are gradually moving, but the speed of their movement is about two millimeters per year. Thus, Sable swims a hundred thousand times faster than his brothers.
Among other things, the width of the island tends to change from time to time. Sable is "losing weight", then becoming wider again. Only the length of this crescent remains unchanged.
How Sable lures and sinks ships
Portuguese sailors, who first found this island in 1521, first called it Santa Cruz, that is, the Island of the Holy Cross. Nevertheless, such a name was quickly ceased to be used, since, as it turned out, there was nothing pious on this earth.
The island was soon renamed Sable. It is not known exactly what this name means. From different languages "Sable" can be translated as "month", "sand", "saber", "sable" or even "black, mourning color". The latter option is perhaps the most similar to the truth, since the sailors really called the island Mourning among themselves. “Atlantic Cemetery” and “Ship Eater” are some more names of the terrible and mysterious island that speak eloquently about the attitude of sailors towards it.
Hundreds of military, merchant, fishing, expeditionary and pirate ships have crashed here since the sixteenth century. According to official statistics, in total Sable sank three and a half hundred ships, but in fact there are many more, and this number clearly exceeded the thousandth mark long ago. In the old days, among the sailors who visited this region of the North Atlantic and were careful not to get close to Sable, there was a legend about a living island, which, like a giant waterfowl predator, awaits ships and lures them to itself. From a distance, the island always seemed friendly and calm, however, when the ships sailed too close to it and no longer had the opportunity to turn around, a strong storm began, and the ships were thrown onto the underwater rocks. The last that the unfortunate drowning men saw were the skeletons of other ships that had sunk to the bottom.
In the thirties of the last century, Canadian scientists gathered an expedition here in order to check whether the sea legends really have some kind of soil under them, and Sable is an anomalous place. Imagine their surprise when they found numerous shipwrecks on its shore! It turned out that the island consists of quicksand, which is constantly moving and literally envelop the wrecked ships, as if absorbing them. There are simply no other such places on the planet.
Island or living thing?
The sharp reefs surrounding Sable are unique. They have the color of sea water, so they cannot be seen even at close range. In zoology, there is such a concept as mimicry, which means the ability of living things to externally disguise themselves as other species. The rocks near the Mourning Island do exactly the same, that is, they have mimicry - and even this alone can be considered something incredibly fantastic, almost unearthly.
The local sands also have a strange property. If you dig a hole in them, it instantly fills with ocean water. How this is possible, nobody knows. Like any other island, Sable, presumably, represents the top of a seamount, but where the water comes from below is completely incomprehensible. But maybe there is no mountain, and this piece of land has nothing to do with the seabed? This could explain his high speed of movement across the ocean …
Researchers of supernatural phenomena have advanced more daring theories. For example, that Sable is a full-fledged living organism. According to experts, this may be an alien from a parallel world, for example, a biorobot left on Earth by aliens, or even a creature that has always been on our planet, long before the first bacteria began to evolve. It is not necessary that the island is a predator. Perhaps he simply dislikes people (and why should he love them?) And does not allow unreasonable earthlings close to him, at least in large numbers and, most importantly, with aggressive intentions. For example, wild horses have been living here quietly for over two hundred years, constantly breeding. They eat grass and drink sea water without any inconvenience on the island. As well as long-nosed seals. Sable does not suck these animals into the sand or kill them, as they know how to live in harmony with nature.
Sable people
However, as mentioned above, there are still people here. We are talking about the removable staff of the meteorological station, opened on the island back in 1871. These five experts are currently exploring the water and air here, arriving and departing by helicopter. On average, one researcher lives on the island for three months. According to the station staff, they are already accustomed to the storm and local oddities. For example, at night there is sometimes a terrible fog that has an incomprehensible composition. And it's better not to even try to walk in this fantastic haze of the island …
Ships are often visible on the horizon from the island. Today Sable is located in an area of active shipping. However, modern technologies such as GPS navigators make it possible to completely avoid crashes. Although the island is capable of moving, it is by no means so fast as to chase tankers and bulk carriers on its own. However, apparently, he is not only reasonable, but also quite peaceful, that is, he does not harm anyone until he is disturbed. People have been ordered here - not to gather more than five …