Vanishing island refers to any permanent island which is exposed at

low tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables c ...

but is submersed at

high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

. Vanishing islands occur globally. There are vanishing islands in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and several in the

San Juan Islands The San Juan Islands is an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...

. In early times, seamen were confused by this phenomenon and invented explanations for it, usually involving a massive sea monster that would let a crew land on its back before submersing itself, drowning the crew. Notable examples of these include the

aspidochelone According to the tradition of the ''Physiologus'' and medieval bestiary, bestiaries, the aspidochelone is a fabled sea creature, variously described as a large whale or vast sea turtle, and a giant sea monster with huge spines on the ridge of its ...

, Fastitocalon, Jasconius,

Lyngbakr Lyngbakr ( Icelandic, ''lyngi'' " heather" + ''bak'' "back") is the name of a massive whale-like sea monster reported in the '' Örvar-Odds'' saga to have existed in the Greenland Sea. According to the saga, Lyngbakr would bait seafarers by posin ...

Hafgufa ( "sea" + "steam"; "sea-reek"; "sea-steamer") is a sea creature, purported to inhabit Iceland's waters (Greenland Sea) and southward toward Helluland. Although it was thought to be a sea monster, research suggests that the stories originated fro ...

, and various accounts of the

kraken The kraken (, from , "the crookie") is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the Norwegian Sea off the coast of Norway. It is believed that the legend of the Kraken may h ...

. The phrase is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to Islands which may be permanently lost due to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

References

Islands by type Tides {{island-stub

See also

References