There's a Strange Rotating Circular Island in Argentina

Natural feature? Man-made curiosity? Carefully camouflaged entrace to an underground UFO base?

This mysterious floating island in the marshy delta of Argentina's Paraná river was purportedly discovered about six months ago by Argentinian film producer Sergio Neuspillerm as he was surveying the area in Google Earth while doing research for a paranormal documentary film project.

Here you can see Mr. Neuspillerm explain in his own words:



It's certainly a creepy enough location — a swamp crisscrossed with narrow serpentine ribbons of warter, replete with the rusting hulks of ships which I assume were stranded by decreasing water levels and abandoned. The area is also apparently home to a number of diverse reports of strange and (seemingly?) unrelated phenomena, ranging from the supernatural to the extraterrestrial.

However it's the floating island which Neuspillerm and company have nicknamed "The Eye" that might prove to be the most interesting thing to be found in the area around the Paraná delta. The feature is approximately 130 yards in diameter and while the island is slightly oblong, the small body of water in which it floats is a neat circle.

From the always entertaining Oddity Central:

Neuspillerm soon teamed up with Richard Petroni, a hydraulic and civil engineer from New York, and tech expert Pablo Martinez and together journeyed to Parana Delta to see The Eye first hand. “The place was amazing and extremely strange. We discovered that the water is incredibly clear and cold, something totally unusual in the area,” the filmmaker said. “The bottom is hard in contrast to the swampy marshes surrounding it and the center part floats. We don’t know over what, but it floats.”

“We want to return with a complete scientific expedition having scuba gear, geologists, biologists, ufologists, specialized drones and more, and take samples of the water, soil, plants an all other objects we may find,” Neuspillerm said about their project, called ‘Elojo’ (The Eye).

“We want to understand The Eye’s relation with supernatural stories told by the locals.” The Eye has apparently been visible on Google Maps – at coordinates 34°15’07.8’S 58°49’47.4″W – for the last decade, but until the Elojo project went public, no one ever paid it any mind. Now, the internet is buzzing with theories about its existence. Most are associating it with UFO activity and go as far as to claim that the rotating island is concealing an alien base, while the locals believe that its circle-within-a-circle shape represents the presence of God on Earth.

Neuspillerm has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his "scientific expedition" and presumably a documentary film. Side note: for $10,000, donors can tag along. Oddity Central notes that one killjoy in particular has attempted to diminish the mystery of The Eye by pointing out a YouTube video which shows similar features he claims are a characteristic feature of the area.



I'm not deterred and while I don't seriously (or not seriously) entertain the idea that there is any paranormal or extraterrestrial explanation for The Eye or these similar formations which are as far as I know endemic to the region, it's a phenomenon that is nonetheless fascinating and worthy of further study.

My hypothesis is that it's a completely natural feature. Floating islands are not in of themselves unusual and occur worldwide, particularly in marshy areas. Typically starting with mats of aquatic vegetation, they can over time grow to many feet thick, accumulating peat/mud/dirt/debris and eventually become substantial enough to sustain terrestrial plant life.

If you're familiar with pancake ice or ice circles then you're already aware of similar mechanisms by which flating material can be formed into circular shapes through rotation driven by the motion of water or the force of wind. I imagine that what's happened here is that floating islands of vegetation have formed in pools of water and as these mats have been pushed around by the wind — slowing rolling around the pools — the sides of both have become circular over time.

Interestingly, there is some precedent that might support the idea that these could be man-made by indigenous people. Wikipedia - Floating Island:

Floating artificial islands are generally made of bundled reeds, and the best known examples are those of the Uros people of Lake Titicaca, Peru, who build their villages upon what are in effect huge rafts of bundled totora reeds. The Uros originally created their islands to prevent attacks by their more aggressive neighbours, the Incas and Collas.

The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was surrounded with chinampas, small artificial islands used for agriculture known as "floating gardens" (though not really floating). Floating gardens on a large scale have been demonstrated with aquaponics[2] systems in China growing rice, wheat and canna lily on islands, with some installations exceeding 2.5 acres (10,000 m2).[3]

If you found this interesting, you might also want to check out an older thread of mine:

Subterranean Clouds and a River of Ice Pancakes

a reply to: theantediluvian

this has been discussed recently www.abovetopsecret.com...

Nice presentation although im sure this has been posted already sometime last week seem to remember a simular post.
a reply to: theantediluvian

a reply to: theantediluvian

Could be a similar thing to the more well known floating gardens (and islands) that used to be made by the Inca people years ago.

An abandoned floating garden from way back?

a reply to: FamCore

Shucks. I searched by Neuspillerm but I must have had a typo. Oh well! Thanks for the link!

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: theantediluvian

this has been discussed recently www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thread closed.