There's a circular island that floats and rotates but nobody's exactly sure how
Gabriella Ferlita
Featured Image Credit: Parque Nacional Ciervo de los Pantanos / Google Earth
There is a circular island that floats and rotates, but no one is exactly sure how.
Located in Parque Nacional Ciervo de los Pantanos, Argentina, the striking piece of land measures almost 120 metres in diameter and is almost fully circular in shape. Check it out here:
Floating on its axis, the land resembles the waning crescent phase of the moon - or an anime-style eye, if you will.
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While El Ojo is not the first floating island to appear across the globe - other nations including Finland, Turkey, Italy, Romania and Ukraine are all home to similar islands - this one is significantly different due to its continuous rotation.
Known by the locals as ‘El Ojo’, meaning ‘Eye Island’, the phenomenon was said to be discovered by Argentinian filmmaker Sergio Neuspiller.
The director was on the hunt for a location to shoot his film about paranormal activity when he found the island in the delta in the park.
At the time, he was not aware that the island was slowly rotating, and only found that out when he returned to the spot shortly after his initial visit and saw that the island had turned.
The island’s movements can even be tracked by those far away from the island in Google’s satellite images which were taken at various times.
These recordings also go to show that the island has been located in the Paraná delta, Argentina, since 2003, meaning it has been there for nearly 20 years.
It is thought that Eye Island was formed by unique currents that allow the island to be in constant motion, whilst it collides with the surrounding land and repeatedly detaches the soft parts of the land which may have allowed it to remain still.
In 2016, Neuspiller began fundraising with a New York-based engineer to discover what was behind the phenomenon.
They set out to raise $50,000 to find out whether it could really be the currents behind the amazing island.
However, this is yet to have been proved after film mogul Neuspiller failed to raise enough funds to discover the science behind the phenomenon.
The pair were unable to raise even a fifth of the amount to cover their investigation.
For those looking to discover the island for themselves, the park is around one hour drive away from Buenos Aires.
The park can also be reached by bus and rail, check out Visit Argentina for more information on how to get there.