Remote places all over the world can be explored at a click thanks to Google Maps.
The website allows users to go wherever they like and see more of the planet from the comfort of their own home.
But one island off the coast of Alaska is hidden on Google Maps and has a dark history of nuclear testing.
Amchitka is a volcanic and unstable island around 116 square miles in size.
It has been part of the United States since Alaska was bought from Russia back in 1867.
In the Second World War, the island was used by US forces as an airfield and marked as a possible target for Japanese troops.
Users who search for the island will find more than half of its surface blurred from view.
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The island’s history of being used as a nuclear testing site may have something to do with it.
Amchitka was chosen by the United States Atomic Energy Commission as a site for underground nuclear detonations in the late 1950s.
It is thought that three nuclear tests were carried out on the island, including one of the largest underground tests ever conducted by the US.
The goal of these tests was to find out how underground nuclear detonations would impact the Earth as the seismic signals moved through the planet’s layers.
The tests on Amchitka were extremely controversial and activists feared they would result in earthquakes and other natural disasters.
To make matters more dangerous, the island is classed as volcanic and believed to be highly unstable.
It is not known why more than half the island is not visible on Google Maps, but Amchitka’s nuclear past could be one of the reasons.
These days it is monitored for the possibility of radioactive materials leaking and is not permanently inhabited.
Although Amchitka does not seem to caused a natural disaster, Google Maps clearly felt the need to restrict whatever can be found on the island’s surface.
It is slated that the island will become a restricted-access wildlife preserve in 2025.
Amchitka Island was used by the Aleuts for more than ten thousand years following their migration from Asia over the southern end of the Bering Land Bridge.
While restoration on Amchitka progresses and the refuge works with the military to clean up the island, the future for this island is still very uncertain.
On Amchitka, the natural healing process has been threatened and disturbed in a profound way.
The legacy of war and nuclear tests remains; the contaminants and rats introduced during this time may never be removed, forever changing the diversity of this island.
Ecosystems can usually recover from naturally occurring disturbances but Amchitka may be irreversibly changed, preventing literal restoration.
The actions taken outside of the wilderness area of the island and the reservation made for future military use should bring into question the expense and efforts of clean-up and restoration.
