People shocked after spotting 'mysterious door' when looking at Antarctica on Google Maps

The last thing you would expect to find in the middle of Antarctica is a mysterious “entrance” placed in the middle of a snowy mountain, but in 2024, would you really be surprised?

A browse on Google Maps can reveal all sorts of oddities – like a “suspicious well” in Canada, a huge pirate ship, or creepy “cartel members” getting into the Halloween spirit – however, this door seems like one of the most disconcerting yet. now. .

A quick look at Google Maps can reveal all sorts of weirdness (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A Reddit user posted his strange discovery in a thread, explaining that he had spotted a “huge door” in East Antarctica, while also sharing the coordinates 69°00’50″S 39°36’22″E so that people could take a look. look for yourselves.

The only thing remotely close is the Japanese research outpost, Showa Station, but it’s hardly a hub of activity out there – so, of course, it didn’t take long for conspiracy theories to start surfacing.

One said: “Great find. Could be some kind of underground base entrance. Could be nothing. Great find either way.”

Another person joked: “Just a Boeing door blown off.”

A third added: “Bunker entrance? Underground entrance?”

The ‘mysterious door’ has sparked a series of conspiracy theories (Google Maps)

While a fourth scoffed: “That’s actually Bigfoot’s holiday home.”

Others have also suggested that it could be somehow linked to a so-called secret bunker belonging to Adolf Hitler, which was previously “located” in Antarctica via Google Maps.

But, to be frank, I’m really amazed that no one has suggested that it could have been something similar to the door that Mike Wazowski and Sulley were thrown through when they were banished to the Himalayas in Monsters, Inc..

Educate yourselves, folks – even though they’re on different continents, it still could have been a valid explanation.

But it turns out the social media sleuths were all wrong, as one expert weighed in on the viral debate over the supposed door to debunk some of the speculation surrounding it.

Scientists say there is actually a fairly simple explanation for what appears to be an icy threshold appearing in an extremely remote location.

Professor Bethan Davies decided to one-up the Redditor who originally posted the ‘door’ by taking a more detailed look at the site via Google Earth Pro, which allowed her to analyze historical images of it.

Experts have now chimed in and sadly declared that the ‘entry’ has nothing to do with Mike and Sulley (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the professor of glaciology at the University of Newcastle explained: “This feature occurs in an area of fast sea ice in East Antarctica, close to the coast.

“There are a number of islands there and the water is quite shallow. This is an iceberg that ran aground and is now stuck and melting in place. You can see many other icebergs in the area.”

His theory was supported by Grantham Institute co-director Professor Martin Siegert, who explained how the door-like structure could have formed.

“This is simply ice flow around a solid subglacial obstacle, influenced also by melting and refreezing ice and katabatic winds,” he said.

“The ice is quite thin here, as evidenced by other nearby rock outcrops, so the bed’s influence on ice flow will be strong. It’s an interesting pattern, but not unusual or surprising from a glaciological perspective.”

A volcanologist from the University of Leicester, Professor John Smellie, also shared his thoughts on the strange discovery.

“It appears to me that a small rock outcrop has been exhumed due to subsidence of the ice,” he said.

“It forms the ‘top’ of the ‘door’. And there are two prominent parallel snow tails forming the sides of the ‘door’.

“Snow tails show the orientation of the prevailing wind direction. So, with a good imagination, there is an overall faint and completely false appearance of the door.”

Unfortunately for everyone wearing tinfoil hats, Professor Smellie said he’s pretty sure the supposed door is “just a natural phenomenon” and “nothing to get excited about.”

What a shame, huh?