Bermeja

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Map from 1818–1820, Bermeja marked as I (sola) Vermeja west of the Yucatán

Bermeja (alternative spelling Vermeja ) is the name of an alleged island that is shown on numerous maps of the Gulf of Mexico from the 16th to the 19th century. It is located on these maps a good 200 km off the coast of the Mexican peninsula Yucatán and 160 km west of the Arrecife Alacranes atoll on the outer edge of the Campeche Bank and is said to have an area of ​​about 80 km².

history

Card 1846 on which the I (sola) Bermeja is located

This island was first mentioned by Alonso de Santa Cruz on a list of islands in the region published in Madrid in 1539 . Its exact location was then given by Alonso de Chaves in the book Espejo de navegantes , who also stated there that the island appeared in the distance "bright and reddish", in Spanish : " bermeja ".

Research

As early as 1820, in the geographic work Derrotero de las Islas Antillas, there was strong doubt that Isla Bermeja really existed, as it could not be discovered in 1804 at the position indicated on old maps. The island was not found either in a 1997 inventory or in a study by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México . The water depth at the alleged position is more than 40 m. Even the oldest satellite images, taken in the late 1970s and early 1980s, do not show an island at the specified position.

Suspicions about the island's nonexistence were reinforced by the fact that a proven existence of this island would be of vital importance in staking oil drilling rights at the Hoyos de Dona in the Gulf of Mexico. The explanation given for the island's current undetectability include a shift in the sea floor and a rise in sea level due to global warming. Conspiracy theories even involve the CIA blowing up the pre-existing island in order to secure US hegemony in the oil-rich region. According to expert statements, however, there is no indication at the specified coordinates that an island was ever located there. Presumably the existence of the island on the old maps was simply based on a mix-up. Bermeja is therefore to be seen as a phantom island .

Coordinates: 22 ° 33 ′  N , 91 ° 22 ′  W

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historical maps of Mexico 1656 - 1849 ( Memento of March 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ An 1846 map of Mexico
  3. ↑ El Yucatán e Islas Adyacentes , Madrid 1539
  4. ^ Espejo de navegantes , Seville , ca.1540
  5. ↑ Enrique Méndez y Roberto Garduño in www.jornada.unam.mx
  6. ↑ Derrotero de las Islas Antillas , Madrid, 1820, pp. 430/441 f.
  7. ↑ Space Daily: "Missing Mexican island fuels mystery"
  8. ↑ No existe la isla Bermeja en coordenadas disponibles: investigadores de UNAM ( Memento of June 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Mexico claims to Gulf shrink with island's loss , AFP. June 23, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2009. 
  10. ↑ "GEOGRAPHY POSSE - Non-island outraged Mexicans" , Spiegel Online .