Lawmakers in Mexico are trying to determine the whereabouts of island central to the country's oil claims, which appears literally to have dropped off the map about 10 years ago.
Bermeja island in the Gulf of Mexico -- a strategic marker defining US and Mexican maritime and subsea rights -- has disappeared along with documents backing up a bilateral treaty on major oil reserves in the area, fueling rumors of a CIA plot.
"There are two stories about how it disappeared: one is that global warming raised the sea level and it is under water," said Mexican lawmaker Elias Cardenas, of the Convergence Party.
"The other is that ... it was blown up by the CIA so that the United States would get the upper hand in Hoyos de Dona" -- the oil reserves area.
Low-lying Bermeja, a smallish 80 km2 (31 sq miles), until 30 years ago was the official land point from which Mexico set its 200 nautical-mile economic zone.
The Alacranes islands now are being used as the marker, sharply reducing Mexico's economic zone.
In June 2000, Mexico and the United States signed a treaty putting a 10-year moratorium on their prospecting and pumping activities in the area. It is set to expire in 2011.
But "we do not have information about how this accord was signed," Cardenas said, while Bermeja north of Yucatan and Campeche states, had been mapped as far back as 1669.
Bermeja appears in a 1998 book of Mexican islands by the Interior Ministry, but in 1997 a Navy fishing expedition reported it could not locate the island, Cardenas said.
The foreign ministry did not respond to an AFP request for comment on the case.
Miguel Angel Gonzalez Felix, a foreign ministry legal adviser when the treaty was negotiated, last June told senators the island was some 40 to 50 meters (120 to 150 feet) under water.
Six days later, several Mexican senators said in a statement that "a force of nature (able to sink an island) does not take place without anyone noticing, and much less so when it is sitting in an area with more than 22 billion barrels of oil reserves."
Lawmakers have demanded President Felipe Calderon account for how Bermeja Island disappeared from Mexican territory.
I think someone would have noticed if CIA did a Bikini on Bermeja.
I thought Roman candles meant they were imported. - Kelly Bundy
12 yards long, two lanes wide it's 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero! - Simpsons
Support the KKK environmental program - keep the Arctic white!
How the fuck did it take so long to become a "problem"? They knew it was missing in 1997.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it. Blank Yellow (NSFW)
More then one island has disappeared in modern times, usually as the result of major storms, which seems quite likely given how much the Gulf of Mexico eats up Hurricanes. The world is still eroding to accommodate the changes of the last ice age; the comparatively minuscule sea level changes from global warming need not apply. Amusingly though and the completely opposite of this, in the South China Sea China has actually build up reefs and islands which existed only at low tide into full time land masses in ordered to expand its own claims.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
I thought Roman candles meant they were imported. - Kelly Bundy
12 yards long, two lanes wide it's 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero! - Simpsons
Support the KKK environmental program - keep the Arctic white!
Possible. If it was sitting on a magma bubble that got deflated, it would have sunk. And if it was missing already in 1997, the hurricane Mitch in 1995 did a good number on that area, though it hit Honduras and Nicaragua the worst.
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Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
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The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
My God... that's why it's so hard to take seriously some anti-US complaints. The fucking CIA is able to steal/make disappear islands at will to change borders. Fucking paranoids.
If th eisland used to be on charts, then there'd be grid coordinates, or Latitude/Longitude coordinates. A visit to those coordinates and a peek at the underwater topography could tell us if the island sank.
Aren't some islands little more than coral-reinforced sand heaps in the Caribbean, anyway? Given the way climate change and pollution has been killing off coral, then the island may have had is "retaining wall" of coral killed off and the sandbar just eroded away as well. Although the volcanic magma bubble deflation looks more likely.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
That's not the "Missing Island". That's another island about 30 miles away. The probability is that the "missing island" never existed. There's a lot of evidence to support that hypothesis. In 1885, officers of the Spanish Navy, in their search for the Negrillo, saw nothing of the island, replicating the finding of Royal Navy officers who looked for it in 1804. Captain E. Barnett, R.N., also closely examined this neighborhood in 1844 without meeting with anything. In 1857, The American Coast Pilot, containing directions for the pricipal harbors capes and headlands of the coasts of North and South America, says emphatically that Island Bermija (sic) does not exist. In 1846, The Nautical Magazinealso stated emphatically that the "existance of Isla Bermeja is also very doubtful... It is considered by many that no such shoal exist at the present time"
Therefore the evidence is that this island never existed. That wouldn't be unusual; there are a lot of odd rocks and shoals that were reported in the days of yore that we know now don't exist. Just a combination of navigational errors and people's desire to "discover" something. By the way, its interesting to note that the root of this story is a very inflammatory Cuban magazine.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
Coyote wrote:My God... that's why it's so hard to take seriously some anti-US complaints. The fucking CIA is able to steal/make disappear islands at will to change borders. Fucking paranoids.
If th eisland used to be on charts, then there'd be grid coordinates, or Latitude/Longitude coordinates. A visit to those coordinates and a peek at the underwater topography could tell us if the island sank.
Aren't some islands little more than coral-reinforced sand heaps in the Caribbean, anyway? Given the way climate change and pollution has been killing off coral, then the island may have had is "retaining wall" of coral killed off and the sandbar just eroded away as well. Although the volcanic magma bubble deflation looks more likely.
Perhaps the U.S. could use this paranoia to it's advantage diplomatically. I'm sure such an idea wouldn't work on anyone with a modicum of sense, but perhaps it could be used none the less.
As for the island itself, I find the ideas presented here to be the most probable.
Perhaps the U.S. could use this paranoia to it's advantage diplomatically. I'm sure such an idea wouldn't work on anyone with a modicum of sense, but perhaps it could be used none the less.
"Do as we say, or we'll sink your country!"?
I guess now we know what happened to Atlantis. They messed with the US and the CIA got rid of them using a combination of their island-sinking technology and the secrect time machine in area 51.
More seriously, the theory that the island never existed in the first place sounds the most plausible to me. For an entire island of that size to just sink in such a short timespan, even if it's vulcanic, it doesn't seem very likely. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no geologist).
Perhaps the U.S. could use this paranoia to it's advantage diplomatically. I'm sure such an idea wouldn't work on anyone with a modicum of sense, but perhaps it could be used none the less.
"Do as we say, or we'll sink your country!"?
"WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!!"
More seriously, the theory that the island never existed in the first place sounds the most plausible to me. For an entire island of that size to just sink in such a short timespan, even if it's vulcanic, it doesn't seem very likely. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no geologist).
It's certainly within the realm of possibility, but if it vanished due to seismic activity you'd think someone would have picked something up for us to correlate. As it is, the invisible island theory does sound more plausible.
Fucking paranoids.
