An island the size of nearly two NFL football fields popped up in a vast British Columbia reservoir—then vanished just as quickly as it appeared. Boaters in northern BC’s Williston Reservoir spotted the forested mass bobbing in the water in July and shared video that quickly spread online. BC Hydro’s Bob Gammer initially questioned the footage, citing AI-era fakery concerns, but satellite images from July 21 confirmed the object: roughly 140 meters long by 70 wide, floating in open water about 60 miles west of the WAC Bennett Dam, reports the CBC. By August 5, however, new satellite passes showed nothing there.
Gammer says the island, hosting many large trees, likely drifted back to a sheltered shoreline. It made another appearance Monday, the Guardian reports, some 20 miles from its earlier location. There’s no impact to dam operations as of now. The utility thinks driftwood, roots, and soil along the shore may have built up into a vegetated mat that eventually broke free after high snowpack and heavy rains filled the world’s seventh-largest artificial reservoir to its highest level in 14 years, per Global News. Floating islands are known to form in other dammed lakes, with outlets pointing to Wisconsin’s movable “Forty Acre Bog.” Gammer warns anyone against trying to step foot on the island, describing it as “unsafe” and “unstable.”