Purdue says suspected object likely a collection of trees

A US expedition visited a remote Pacific island to investigate Amelia Earhart's disappearance.

In a statement issued by Monday, Purdue University said the object was likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula's sandspit.

The mission began with satellite images from 2020. They showed an elongated white object in shallow water near a sandy outcrop called the Taraia Peninsula.

Other longtime Earhart explorers had quickly identified it as a fallen tree. But Richard Pettigrew, who leads the nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute, found other footage showing what he suspected was a metallic glint in the water.

The university also attributed the glint to a natural process. It said the surface reflection that had prompted speculation about metal came from a carbonate veneer, and that other objects found by the team were coated with a shiny mixture of concretized coral sand.

Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe along the equator. Nikumaroro, in Kiribati, has emerged as a leading candidate for where they might have crash-landed.