VIDEO: Mysterious floating island spotted, disappears in Canada reservoir

A strange island, covered in trees, appeared suddenly and then disappeared from a large lake in British Columbia, Canada. People living nearby and officials were puzzled by its sudden movement. The island, which could be over 10,000 square meters in size, was first seen on a reservoir called Williston Reservoir, near a place called Mackenzie.

This reservoir was made by building a dam in 1968. The sudden appearance and movement of the island made some people worry. They wanted to know how to watch out for debris floating on the lake, which had the most water it had in 14 years this summer. At first, a man named Bob Gammer from B.C. Hydro, who works with water, didn't believe what people were saying about the island.

He said it was hard to find, and some pictures could be made to look real using a special computer program called artificial intelligence. He said, "It's certainly something we've not heard of before." But later, he and others said they could see the island in pictures taken from far away by machines called satellites on July 20.

The island was gone from the satellite pictures by August 5. Gammer said that not seeing the island in the satellite pictures didn't mean it had sunk to the bottom of the lake. It could have gone back to a safer place near the shore. He suggested that the island could have formed slowly over many years. Driftwood, which is wood that has floated in water and is breaking down, can collect near the shore.

Plants and trees might grow in the wood, and over time, it could become a floating island of vegetation. Gammer thought the island might have broken away from the shore when the water level rose, making it float away. This unusual floating island caught people's attention because it looked like a small forest floating on the lake before it vanished.