A mysterious 'black hole' has been discovered by internet sleuths on Google Maps.
The phenomenon, which has three sides, was shared on social media site Reddit by a site user who was taken aback by his findings.
The bizarre find looks nothing like an island and images show it is blacked out prompting speculation about what it is.
Reddit user Kokoblocks wrote: “what the F*** this looks nothing like an island”.
Posters on the site were confused and could not decide whether it was in fact an island, a portal to another world, or a secret military base.
It appears as a dark circular shape on the the site with the ocean surrounding it.
But it does not have any detail or color and appears blanked out.
But it eventually turned out to be an atoll or a ring-shaped coral reef owned the Republic of Kirabiti, known as Vostok Island.
Live Science said Google often blurred out military sites and other “secret” locations to avoid revealing information about the the location of such sites, which has prompted speculation about a “black hole”.
A Reddit user wrote : “My first thought was that it’s censored,”
“It wouldn’t make sense for a natural formation to be black like that in such a shallow, small atoll/island.”
A number of Reddit users realised the mystery black hole was actually Vostok Island an uninhabited atoll about 2,280 kilometres (3,902 miles) east of Sydney, Australia.
“Could maybe be an underground volcano which is what causes the blackness, assuming it isn’t a hole. Most likely igneous rock,” another Reddit user speculated.
National Geographic says Vostok is one of five atolls in the southern Line Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which are rarely visited by humans.
The chain of islands are also said to be incredibly diverse in its flora and fauna both on and off-shore.
