From a two-headed dog to a headless man, weird and wonderful objects are often seen on Google Maps.
But the latest sighting is arguably one of the strangest yet.
A mysterious ‘doorway’ has been discovered in Antarctica, just southeast of Japan’s Showa Station.
The discovery has sparked a number of theories across the internet, including Bigfoot’s vacation home or a shuttle from Star Trek.
Now scientists have revealed to MailOnline what the structure really is – and say there is a simple explanation.
A mysterious ‘doorway’ has been discovered in Antarctica, just southeast of the Japanese-run Showa Station
The discovery has sparked a number of theories across the internet, including Bigfoot’s vacation home or a shuttle from Star Trek
The unusual structure was discovered by a Reddit user on Google Maps at the coordinate 69°00’50″S 39°36’22″E.
Writing to the forum, they wrote: ‘Massive dying in Antarctica?’, along with the coordinates.
The post has garnered huge attention, with hundreds of viewers flocking to the comments to discuss what the structure could be.
‘Just a blow off the Boeing door,’ replied one user, while another wrote: ‘It’s actually the Bigfoots holiday home.’
One user suggested it was ‘the door to Agartha’, while another claimed it could be a ‘large seed vault like the one in Svalbard, Norway.’
The unusual structure was discovered by a Reddit user on Google Maps at the coordinate 69°00’50″S 39°36’22″E
The post has garnered huge attention, with hundreds of viewers flocking to the comments to discuss what the structure could be
One user suggested it was the ‘doorway to Agartha’, while another claimed it could be a ‘large seed vault like the one in Svalbard, Norway’
Unfortunately, the true identity of the structure is much less exciting than these theories might lead you to believe.
Professor Bethan Davies, professor of glaciology at the University of Newcastle, looked at the coordinates on Google Earth Pro so she could view historical images.
“This feature is in an area of ​​fast sea ice in East Antarctica, just off the coast,” she explained to MailOnline.
‘There are a number of islands there and the water is quite shallow.
‘This is an iceberg that was grounded and is now stuck and melting out in situ. You can see many other icebergs in the area.’
Professor Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute, agreed with Professor Davies.
He told MailOnline: ‘This is simply ice flow around a solid subglacial obstacle, also affected by the melting and refreezing of ice and by katabatic winds.
‘The ice is quite thin here, as evidenced by other rocky outcrops nearby, so the bed’s influence on the ice flow will be strong.
‘It’s an interesting pattern, but not unusual or surprising glaciologically.’
Meanwhile, Professor John Smellie, a volcanologist at the University of Leicester, joked: ‘What would we do without the conspiracy theorists?
‘The resist is not brilliant and I do not recognize the locality, but it looks to me as if a short rock outcrop has been dug up by a subsidence of the ice.
‘It forms the “top” of the “doorway”. And there are two prominent parallel snow tails forming the sides of the “doorway”. The snow tails show you the orientation of the prevailing wind direction.
So with a good imagination there is a faint and totally false door-like appearance.
‘I’m pretty sure it’s just a natural phenomenon and nothing to get excited about.’