Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


Video

‘The Eye’, a rotating island in Argentina

We recently came across this article about a floating island in Argentina that rotates. Producer and film director Sergio Neuspiller discovered it when filming in the area and has since started a Kickstarter to raise funds to investigate it further. See the Kickstarter promotion video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfmYEZ8FVAM

The island is visible in Google Earth imagery and has been in existence since at least 2003, the date of the oldest Google Earth image of the location. Here is an animation showing how it moves over time:

It is fairly obvious what is happening (no, it’s not an alien base as some have suggested). When you have a floating island and a water current that flows along one side of it, it will naturally rotate and become circular over time, as well as carving out a circular hole. The phenomenon is quite rare, because the conditions must be just right. Floating islands of plants are themselves quite rare, but in addition, it requires a current, though a fairly slow moving one.

[ Update: We believe wind may be the main factor in some instances rather than current. ]

There is a special type of floating island that is very common and that is ice. The phenomenon does occur with ice, as you can see in the YouTube videos below:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j6dS9rxbuk

We tried to find other examples of rotating floating islands not made of ice and we found one on a lake in India:

Read more about it here.

We also found a reference to one in the Okavango delta. You can read the full story about it in a PDF found here. Apparently a Brian Wilson discovered a rotating floating island and identified it in aerial imagery from as far back as 1944. It could be seen to have kept rotating up until about 1974, when it attached itself to one side of the lagoon it was in and remained there until at least 1990. We had a look at the coordinates given and not far from that location did indeed find a floating island that has moved between 2006 and 2016. We cannot positively confirm that it is the same island.

But for the real treasure trove of rotating floating islands, the place to go is the Luapula River on the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Sadly, there isn’t a lot of historical imagery, so good animations were not possible. So, we are showing them in the form of ‘before and afters’ to demonstrate that the islands do, in fact, move.

before
after

A round one, an oval and another shape, sharing a pool.

before
after
before
after

If we are not mistaken, the dark patches are fire scars, suggesting the island can sustain fires without destroying it.

before
after

A whole bunch of floating islands!

before
after
before
after

And that’s just some of them. There are many more! Amazingly, we could just (although only just) see some of them moving using our Landsat animations KML file.

To see the above locations in Google Earth, including historical imagery tours, download this KML file.

Bringing Google Earth to VR

It was recently announced that Michael Jones, one of the original founders of Google Earth, has left Google and is now CEO of a cool new VR glasses maker called Wearality. These glasses are unlike other VR glasses because of an ultra-wide 150 degree field of view thanks to patented fresnel lens technology. If you hurry, you can still join their Kickstarter campaign and get early access to these new VR glasses, which are reportedly awesome to behold. They are 88% of the way to their goal of raising $100K, and 8 days are left to the deadline.

I have always dreamed of seeing Google Earth done right in VR. Now we have someone at the wheel of a major new technology who has a serious interest in making that happen! You can already view Google Earth data in the Wearality glasses thanks to its interface with Google Cardboard, which shows StreetView data in stereoscopic 3D. It won’t be long I think before we see more Google Earth goodness from this company.

You can see a short (12 seconds) direct view of what its like looking through the glasses (view of a roller coaster) by someone who used their LG G3 smartphone looking through one lens (select HD mode for best viewing):

I’ve known Michael since he worked at Silicon Graphics over 20 years ago, and we have all used technology he helped create like OpenGL and Google Earth. The fact he has left Google to run this VR glasses company tells me he thinks this one will usher in yet another major computer graphics revolution.

Using Google Earth to track environmental impact

We have discussed the amazing work that Google Earth Outreach does quite a few times on here, and they continue to assist with amazing projects around the world.

They recently released a video that showcases some of the work that they’ve done with nonprofit organizations in Canada. Check it out:

The organizations involved in this include:

  • “Caribou Migration,” by Golder Associates Ltd & Hugh Stimson
  • “I Am Fish,” by the David Suzuki Foundation
  • “Canada’s Boreal, the World’s Largest Intact Forest,” by Pew Environment Group
  • “Voices on the Land,” by Okanagan Nation Alliance, Gregory Kehm Associates & Ecotrust Canada
  • “Oil & Water Map,” by the Living Oceans Society
  • “Natural Capital,” by the David Suzuki Foundation

For more, check out the official Google Earth Outreach website.

(via +Google for Nonprofits)

Exploring the possibilities of a new dam using Google Earth

In British Columbia there is a proposal to build a new dam at “Site C” to help generate affordable clean energy to the region. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but with any project of this size there are certainly downsides to consider as well. In particular, according to this report(PDF):

The District of Hudson’s Hope, a community of 1,100 people in the heart of the Peace River Valley, will be impacted more than any other municipality by the proposed Site C dam.

site c screenshot

The video below explores the project, hears from involved parties, and makes great use of Google Earth to add context to the area and some rough looks at what the result of the dam would look like.

Details on the project can be found at hudsonshope.ca, though their short-term focus (understandably) has shifted to wildfires in the area. You can also view this PDF or this article on Common Sense Canadian to learn more.

Google I/O begins today

Google I/O, the company’s annual conference, begins today in San Francisco. There’s no word if we’ll see anything for Google Earth unveiled, but Google Maps will certainly have a solid presence. From the Google Geo Developers blog:

Google I/O starts tomorrow, and as always, Google Maps is a big part of the show. The team has been working hard to give developers a great experience. We’re looking forward to seeing you there, or your comments online on our videos. There will be lots of maps engineers, developer relations team members, product managers and more around I/O. So if you’re there, find us, say hi and show us your apps!

In their post yesterday, Mano Marks laid out the four different Maps-related sessions that will be offered this year at I/O. He also showed off a new video they’ve released, titled “Map Up your Apps!”, encouraging mobile app developers to integrate Google Maps.

The four Maps-focused sessions sound interesting, and we’ll certainly keep you posted on any Google Earth news that comes out of I/O.

Will any of you be in attendance at I/O?

(via Google Geo Developers blog)