[LOST]Location: next to Mauritius?

According to this fan, the island in TV series LOST is next to Mauritius or Reunion island:

Citation :: Many theorists have speculated that the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 may be the coordinates of the island. Instead of joining the numbers together as most have done (ie.4.815 S latitude and 162.342 W longitude), I decided to take a different approach. I logically assumed that each number was either a degree, minute or second on a standard coordinate grid.

If we take the latitude to be 4 degrees, 8 minutes, 15 seconds South, and longitude as 16 degrees, 23 minutes, 42 seconds West, we end up somewhere in the South Atlantic, between Africa and South America. Changing the longitude to East, we end up in a position somewhere over Africa. These were inconsistent with my theory.

However, I then wondered if the numbers should be reversed. There have been numerous themes in Lost about mirrors or reversals (ie through the looking glass, reversal of fortune on the island etc). What IF we reversed the sequence of numbers? Instead of 4 8 15 16 23 42, how about if it were 24 32 61 51 8 4?

I understand that this is now wild speculation, but what if we were to plug in the coordinates as 24 degrees, 32 minutes, 6.1 seconds South Latitude, and 51 degrees, 8 minutes, 4 seconds East Longitude?

Hey presto = you get a location, just off the eastern coast of Africa and Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. This is exactly where the East Africa Vortex is located, consistent with my theory!

Compare the world grid map, http://www.deepinfo.com/WorldGrid.htm

to my theoretical location of the Island via Google Maps (it’s a long link!)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=24%C2%B032‘6.10%22S,+51%C2%B0+8‘4.00%22E&ie=UTF8&ll=-24.527135,50.976563&spn=135.391758,360&z=2&iwloc=addr&om=1

August 6th UPDATE 2

I just confirmed a few more things based on insights and fan feedback.

1) If the Island’s location is off the coast of Madagascar, just south of Reunion and Mauritius Islands (as shown in the map above), it will fall into the +4 GMT Time Zone. Oceanic 815 presumably crashed near Fiji, which is +12 GMT, exactly 8 hours apart! If they crashed on the island at 4.16 pm island time (in the Indian Ocean), it would be 12.16 am Sept 23 in Fiji, and 10.16 pm in Sydney (+10 GMT). If the plane departed at 2.15 pm, it would have been in the air for 8 hrs and 1 minute before it crashed (which makes the 8 hrs of flight time established in the canon).

2) If the Indian Ocean location is correct, its closest neighbors would be the islands of Reunion and Mauritius. Looking both up on wikipedia, I discovered some interesting facts. -The islands are geographically similar to Hawaii. Together with Réunion and Rodrigues, Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands. This archipelago was formed in a series of undersea volcanic eruptions, as the African plate drifted over the Réunion hotspot. Mauritius and Rodrigues were formed 8-10 million years ago. They are no longer volcanically active, and the hotspot now rests under Réunion. -The local climate is tropical, modified by southeast trade winds; there is a warm, dry winter from May to November and a hot, wet, and humid summer from November to May. Cyclones affect the country during November-April. - The island is well known for its exceptional natural beauty; “You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius”, as Mark Twain noted in Following the Equator. - Reunion Island was first discovered by the Portuguese, and later colonized by the French.

3) Using the US Naval Observatory’s Sunrise/Sunset calculator, and setting it to December 18 2004, with the coordinates 24 deg 32 min South and 51 deg 8 min East, gives a sunrise time of 5.42 am, consistent with the amount of daylight at 6 am in the episode DOC.

4) Naomi NEVER mentions the country/land her search and rescue team came from, only saying that she was stationed on a vessel 80 miles off-shore (The Brig). For all we know, her vessel could be as far away as the West Coast of the USA, hence the signal received by her phone.

5) Alexanj brought up an interesting point about the 4-toed-statue and the Greek connection. As evidenced by the Periplus Map, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PeriplusMap.jpg which charts the known early Greek Trade Routes, they journeyed as far south as Raphta, East Africa. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume they journeyed further south, around Madagascar, to the Island…

6) In response to hebrewhammer’s post in his theory page, “If the daylight can be explained by them not actually heading east but west, why didn’t anyone notice that “hey we’re heading towards the sun” when they knew the sun should have been behind them going towards LA?”

I’ve been on extremely long flights (17-18hrs one way!). After about the first few hours, I usually lose track of time, as we’d be flying into different time zones and crossing the International Date Line.

All this is now hypothetical, but maybe someone DID notice they were traveling in the wrong direction, but were conveniently lied to by Cindy or the other flight crew. Shouldn’t you trust them, who’ve traveled the route regularly? Then, before they could tell the others, they DIED.

Remember, out of the 324 passengers and crew of Oceanic 815, only 71 initially survived (72 including Vincent). If we were to assume that the Pilot and Cindy were lying, ONLY 69 passengers were confirmed “clueless” about the plane’s direction. 69/324 = 21.3%, or 1/5 of the passengers didn’t know or couldn’t care less at the time.

Any thoughts?

ouohuhouhohu !! Attention aux Autres, les Mauriciens !!! Twisted Evil

lol
on sait meme si ce qu'il dit est vrai!