Wachusett Reef

---

title: "Wachusett Reef" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["phantom-islands", "reefs-of-the-pacific-ocean"] description: "Apparent phantom reef in the South Pacific" topic_path: "general/phantom-islands" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachusett_Reef" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Apparent phantom reef in the South Pacific ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox fictional location"]

Field	Value
name	Wachusett Reef
image	Wachusett Bank.png
imagesize	250px
caption	Wachusett Reef on 1921 Pacific map
type	Phantom island
::

| name = Wachusett Reef | image = Wachusett Bank.png | imagesize = 250px | caption = Wachusett Reef on 1921 Pacific map | source = | creator = | type = Phantom island ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Wachusett_Bank_on_map_of_Antarctica.png" caption="Wachusett Reef as "Wachusett Bank" on 1904 map of Antarctica"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Antarctica_1912_edit.jpg" caption="Historic Antarctic map of 1912 with "Wachusett Untiefe""] ::

Wachusett Reef is a phantom reef in the Antarctic Ocean.

Captain Lambert of the ship Wachusett reported that on June 4, 1899 he passed over a reef which appeared to be of coral formation in approximately latitude . The reef appeared to be about 500 ft wide. The bottom showed of a dark gray color with deep blue on both sides of the reef. The depth was estimated at from 5 to; unfortunately no soundings were taken.

The 2015 edition of the National Geographic Atlas of the World still shows Wachusett Reef, with a depth of 9 m. Nevertheless, its existence is doubtful, making it a phantom reef. Other nearby historically reported reefs which appear to not exist include Ernest Legouve Reef, Jupiter Reef, and Maria Theresa Reef.

Notes

References

• Eade, J.V. (1976). Geological notes on the Southwest Pacific Basin in the area of Wachusett Reef and Maria Theresa Reef. Wellington: New Zealand Oceanographic Institute.

References

1. United States Hydrographic Office. (1916). "Pacific Islands Pilot, v. 2". Government Printing Office.
2. (2015). "National Geographic Atlas of the World". National Geographic.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::