Filippo Reef is a reef that is asserted to be in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

at , east of

Starbuck Island Starbuck Island (or Volunteer Island) is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and is part of the Central Line Islands of Kiribati. Its former names include "Barren Island", "Coral Queen Island", "Hero Island", " ...

in the

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands () are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons, except Vostok and Jarvis) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawa ...

. The reef was reported by the master of the Italian barque ''

Filippo Filippo is an Italian male given name, which is the equivalent of the English name Philip, from the Greek ''Philippos'', meaning "horse lover".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Philip" Retrieved on 23 January 2016. The female variant is Filippa. T ...

'' as having been seen on 28 June 1886. From an unidentified report of breakers dated 1926, it was estimated to have a water depth of only , and appeared to be about long northwest to southeast, and less in width. The only sighting referenced shows a date of 1926. The topographic data supplied by the

General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) is a publicly available bathymetric chart of the world's oceans. The project was conceived with the aim of preparing a global series of charts showing the general shape of the seafloor. Over the ...

(GEBCO), however, shows a sea depth of . It is therefore likely that this 1926 report is an error, and that Filippo Reef is a

phantom island A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigati ...

, and that therefore any maps showing it are relying on the 1926 report and are also in error. Nevertheless, it is marked in the 2015 edition of the ''National Geographic Atlas of the World''.

References

Line Islands Reefs of the Pacific Ocean Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean Phantom islands Reefs of Kiribati Line Islands (Kiribati) {{kiribati-geo-stub

See also

References