Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


Science

https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/

Protecting uncontacted tribes in the Amazon rainforest with Google Earth

Scientists from the University of Missouri and the University of New Mexico have been using Google Earth imagery to track an uncontacted tribe in Amazon rainforest in Brazil. While Google Earth adds a level of convenience for the researchers, tracking the tribe from afar can be essential to their survival. From Mongabay.com:

Small populations like these risk imminent extinction due to various threats. But contacting these tribes may prove even more disastrous. Diseases commonplace in our society, like the common cold, can wipe out large portions of such tribes in a matter of days. Therefore, using satellite images to regularly and remotely survey their populations, and track their movements could prove a good non-invasive way of keeping a close eye on the tribes and protecting them from afar.

tribes

The researchers have had difficulty finding the tribe in more recent satellite imagery, possible due to the tribe’s movement to escape drug traffickers in the area, but they continue their search to regain information about their current location.

Be sure to check out the full article on the Mongabay website.

Finding Dinosaurs in Google Earth

Pterosaurs, the first flying vertebrates that lived between 66-228 million years ago, went extinct around the end of the Cretaceous period. To help make it easier to understand where they lived, Matthew McLain at Loma Linda University has worked with come colleagues to put together PteroTerra, a Google Earth-powered database of pterosaurs.

pteroterra

An article on CBS News explains why McLain is tackling this project:

“Anybody can just pull this up really fast — the point being that you’d be able to plot where all these different specimens are on Earth, and you might be able to see if there was any sort of trend that maybe we haven’t noticed,” McLain said.

McLain said that other paleontologists have approached him to discuss starting databases for other ancient beasts, like the marine plesiosaur. He would like to create a database of dinosaur footprints and trackways, as a way to get a broader geographical view of dino travel.

To see the data for yourself, visit the PteroTerra website. The map page will give you a good overview, and then you can download the KML file to view all of the data in Google Earth.

Great work, Matthew!

Did Google Earth discover an underwater alien base?

I had been ignoring this story since it’s so crazy, but it seems to be popping up more and more so I felt it was time to address it. In short, the folks at “Before It’s News” (and others) have been showing the following screenshot from Google Earth, claiming the lines in the image are from an underwater alien base.

underwater alien base

It’s very similar to the story that went around five years ago claiming that the lost city of Atlantis had been found, with similar tracks showing up on the ocean surface. Google wrote a detailed blog post explaining what it really was, which is the same case here:

The scientific explanation is a bit less exotic, but we think it’s still pretty interesting: these marks are what we call “ship tracks.” You see, it’s actually quite hard to measure the depth of the ocean. Sunlight, lasers, and other electromagnetic radiation can travel less than 100 feet below the surface, yet the typical depth in the ocean is more than two and a half miles. Sound waves are more effective. By measuring the time it takes for sound to travel from a ship to the sea floor and back, you can get an idea of how far away the sea floor is. Since this process — known as echosounding — only maps a strip of the sea floor under the ship, the maps it produces often show the path the ship took, hence the “ship tracks.” In this case, the soundings produced by a ship are also about 1% deeper than the data we have in surrounding areas — likely an error — making the tracks stand out more.

I encourage you to read the full entry on that old Lat Long Blog post if you want to really understand how this occurs. Stefan at Ogle Earth also wrote a detailed breakdown of Atlantis years ago which is worth re-reading as well.

The latest developments in Google Ocean

Google first released their 3D Ocean feature in Google Earth more than five years ago, and it’s something that has seen steady improvements over the years.  Here are some of the more interesting recent developments:

USS Mohawk, shipwreck by Trident Imaging

uss mohawk

(via + Google Ocean Program)

Catlin Seaview Survey & Google Ocean at the 2014 Economist World Summit

From Google themselves, here’s more of what they’ve launched with Underwater Earth recently:

We are happy to announce 7 new underwater street view collects off Monaco and Mexico, including whale sharks and coral reefs in partnership with Australian non profit partner Underwater Earth’s “Catlin Seaview Survey” and launched in honor of the Economist Ocean Summit, where Prince Albert II of Monaco dove below Rocher Saint Nicolas virtually using the new Liquid Galaxy videowall. We also released the first ever San Francisco shoreline imagery collected from the water in partnership with Marine Advanced Research by placing a Google trekker camera atop the stable autonomousWAM-V® USV robot. Underwater Earth aims to reveal the reefs with more to explore at maps.google.com/ocean.

There have been some amazing developments to Google Ocean over the years, and it’s only getting better. What’s your favorite feature so far?

Pacific eruption turns two islands into one

Back in 1973, a volcanic eruption in the western Pacific ocean caused the formation of a new island named Nishino-shima. Four months ago, a nearby eruption caused the formation of a new island named Niijima. The Niijima eruption has continued and the island has been growing and has now consumed Nishino-shima and it is continuing to grow larger.

Nishino-shima

It’s quite a look at the birth of an island. From the NASA Earth Observatory site:

The Niijima portion of the island is now larger than the original Nishino-shima, and the merged island is slightly more than 1,000 meters across. Two cones have formed around the main vents and stand more than 60 meters above sea level, triple the highest point of the island in December. Volcanic lava flows are reported to be most active now on the south end of the island.

For more, check out the full article on the NASA Earth Observatory site or visit the Japan Coast Guard page to see aerial photographs of the island.