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Lava flow shapes in Google Earth

December 13, 2013

Because of the way Google Earth work, volcanoes are almost always amazing to view inside of it.  3D terrain combined with high-resolution imagery makes for some stunning views, as we explained a while back in our “A to Z” post about Volcanoes.

The NASA Earth Observatory recently posted an image and article about “lava flows”, seen here:

zhupanovsky

From their article:

Streams of molten rock that ooze from gaps or vents in the Earth’s surface are called lava flows, and they can pose a hazard to everything in their paths. These rivers of rock can take many shapes and move at very different rates depending on the viscosity of the magma, the slope of the land, and the rate of an eruption.

While viscous lava flows are defined by steep flow fronts and pressure ridges, low-viscosity lavas tend to move faster and create longer, narrower shapes. They also tend to have smaller flow fronts and levee-like structure along their edges. Many characteristics of a low-viscosity lava flow are visible in this image of Zhupanovsky and Dzenzursky volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The image was acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite on September 9, 2013.

To see this volcano for yourself, simply download this KML file and load it in Google Earth.  For more, you can read the full story on the NASA Earth Observatory site.

Filed Under: Environment, Science Tagged With: dzenzursky, earth observatory, lava flow, nasa, russia, volcano, zhupanovsky

Using Google Earth to catch overfishing in the Persian Gulf

December 5, 2013

We’ve shown you quite a few examples of Google Earth being used to help prevent crime (including a post last week), but now there’s another great story out of Vancouver.  Scientists at the University of British Columbia are using Google Earth to calculate how much fish was being caught by Persian Gulf nations compared to how much they were reporting.

persian-gulf-fishing

From the article:

…the researchers say Google Earth can be used to detect illegal fishing and underreporting of fish catches. To give some “ground truth” to the Persian Gulf’s fisheries take, Al-Abdulrazzak and Pauly studied Google Earth images from 2005 to 2010. Unlike fishing boats, weirs are big structures—as long as 321 meters (1,053 feet)—that remain anchored in place and are easily detected by satellites. The researchers spotted 1,656 weirs in 2005. But after running an algorithm to correct for poor visibility, they estimated there were actually around 1,900 weirs.

It’s yet another great use of Google Earth, and an excellent way to do that kind of work. Be sure to check out the full article to learn more.

Filed Under: Science Tagged With: fishing, persian gulf

Geography Awareness Week 2013

November 19, 2013

wallpaper C

Each year during the third week of November, National Geographic and other organizations help celebrate Geography Awareness Week to help raise awareness of the importance of geography education.  The mission of the program states:

Too many young Americans are unable to make effective decisions, understand geo-spatial issues, or even recognize their impacts as global citizens. National Geographic created Geography Awareness Week to raise awareness to this dangerous deficiency in American education and excite people about geography as both a discipline and as a part of everyday life. 

The theme this year is “Geography and The New Age of Exploration“, which focuses on how geography enables us to be intrepid explorers in our own way.  Google Earth is certainly one of the best tools you can have to help be an explorer, so we think this theme is great!

Not coincidentally, the annual GIS Day falls on the Wednesday of Geography Awareness Week each year.  There are a variety of events happening on GIS Day, so check out their website at GISDay.com to learn more.

For more information about Geography Awareness Week and how you can get involved, visit their website at GeographyAwarenessWeek.org.

Filed Under: Science Tagged With: geography awareness week, national geographic

Finding the “faces” hidden in Google Earth

November 8, 2013

Over the years people have discovered landforms that somewhat resembled faces in Google Earth.  Frank showed us a great example back in 2007, and Google Earth Hacks has dozens of them in their database if you search for “face”.

Now a program written by the German design studio Onformative is scanning the entire globe to try to find more of them.

face-finder

Explained in an article on the Daily Mail:

The Google Faces tracker scans the satellite images from Google Earth using a computer algorithm. When it detects an area of land that appears to look like a face, the features are highlighted and the coordinates are sent to the design team in Germany to record its location and take a screenshot of the hidden face.

The scanner has covered the entire planet a few times, but each time it scans it zooms in a bit further and takes longer to search everywhere.  All in all, it does a good job of finding obscure faces on our planet that might have otherwise been missed.  Check out the full article on the Daily Mail site to learn more about this project.

Filed Under: Science, Sightseeing Tagged With: faces, onformative

Following the “Scott Expedition” in Google Earth

October 29, 2013

Just over 100 years ago, Robert Scott made his famous expedition to the South Pole.  Ben Saunders and Tarka L’Herpiniere are currently re-tracing the route of Captain Scott, and Dj from OffroadingHome has built some excellent Google Earth files to help track their journey:

I, like many others, are following “the Scott Expedition” currently underway on Antarctica. Frustrated by the lack of topography on the satellite images in Google Earth, I began creating a “resource map” containing all the waypoints and overlays that I could find for Antarctica. It grew and has helped me greatly as I “armchair explore” along with Ben and Tarka.

south-pole

His file is very comprehensive, including the current location of the explorers, the Scott Expedition trail, Captain Scott’s original trail, buildings, bases, glaciers and many other items.  If you have any interest in this new expedition, Dj’s file is an excellent tool to compliment their journey.

You can download the KML file here, or read more about it on the OffroadingHome blog.

Filed Under: Science, Sightseeing Tagged With: antarctica, ben saunders, robert scott, tarka l'herpiniere

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