Recently, Google Maps users were in shock to see an ominous and vast hole in the Pacific Ocean. The hole is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The image shows a “ridge surrounding an appearing-to-be a profound void, suggestive of a descent into the depths of the Earth.”
However, a thorough investigation was carried out which revealed that the magical feature is nothing but an optical illusion, reported Metro.
Dissecting the image more unveiled that the optical illusioned ‘hole’ is a huge accumulation of pisonia trees. The trees are densely packed, situated around 400 miles northwest of Tahiti, on the distant island of Vostok.
About Pisonia Near Pacific Ocean
Pisonia have populated the island, which are often called bird killers. They entangle the “bodies of avian species that have fallen into their sticky seeds.”
The trees produce extremely sticky seeds due to a lack of animal and wind agents for dispersal.
When birds make eggs or nest on this island, these sticky seeds get attached to their plumage. Thus, it gets transferred to faraway islands as well.
The exceptional stickiness of the seeds also creates a deadly situation for the avian birds. The seeds make the birds vulnerable to famine by hindering their flight.
In some cases, the birds also meet their ultimate demise by getting entangled in certain cases.
The Journal of Tropical Ecology published a research paper investigating the “ecological implications of these phenomenon.”
The result revealed that, “the decomposition of bird carcasses confined within the pisonia canopy provided no noticeable nutritional benefits to the trees, nor did seed-laden cadavers migrate onto nearby islands”.
TimesNow reported that, Alan Burger, the author, said that the stickiness of seeds helps in preventing removal by seabirds. Moreover, it also allows long-distance distribution.
Notably, the extinction of these avian vectors confined to the island is characterized as an unholy consequence. It has no positive implications on the flora of the Pisonia.
In a nutshell, the “mysterious hole” found on Google Maps inside the middle of the Pacific Ocean is “an elaborate tapestry of pisonia trees growing on the distant island of Vostok.”
