Mysterious ‘doors’ discovered in Antarctic ice via Google Maps – and conspiracy theorists have wild ideas

Google Maps is a place of great discoveries — and the latest look may be one of the strangest yet.

In East Antarctica, just southeast of Japan’s Showa research station, eagle-eyed users spotted a mysterious “door” that has become the subject of wild theories online, with some speculating that it’s Bigfoot’s resting home or an isolated starship ship. Journey.”

A Reddit user who spotted the ominous structure at coordinates 69°00’50″S 39°36’22″E simply asked, “Massive light in Antarctica?”

“Just a broken Boeing door,” one person suggested, a reference to a shocking mid-air disaster last January, with another jokingly asking: “Wonder if they get a door there.”

“What would we do without conspiracy theorists?” John Smellie, a professor and volcanologist at the University of Leicester, joked to the Daily Mail about the many suggestions offered.

But scientists have discovered what they believe the structure actually is — and it’s not as exciting as any Reddit thesis.

After looking at the coordinates on Google Earth Pro and seeing historical images, Bethan Davies, a professor of glaciology at Newcastle University, told the publication that the mysterious gate “is in an area of ​​fast sea ice … just offshore. of the coast” that is filled with “a series of islands” where shallow water exists.

“This is an iceberg that sank and is now stuck and melting [in place]”, explained Davies. “You can see many other icebergs in the area.”

Professor Martin Siegert, co-director of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, agreed with Davies, telling the paper: “This is simply an ice flow around a strong subglacial barrier, also affected by melting and refreezing of ice and katabatic winds.

“The ice is quite thin here, as evidenced by other rock outcrops nearby, so the influence of the bed on the ice flow will be strong,” he continued. “It’s an interesting pattern, but not unusual or surprising from a glaciological point of view.”

Smellie added that it looked “like a short ridge of rock had been excavated by an ice subsidence”, explaining that the protrusion “forms the ‘top’ of the ‘doorway’. And there are two prominent parallel tails of snow that form the sides of the ‘doorway’. Snowflakes tell you the direction of the prevailing wind direction.”

The volcano guru then amusingly closed the door on any conspiratorial ramblings.

“So by a good stretch of the imagination, it has a poor and completely false appearance as a door in general,” Smellie said. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a natural phenomenon and nothing to get excited about.”