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Google Earth: Now With Oceans, Too

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 February 2009, 13:45 CST

Google Inc. announced on Monday the addition of Earth's oceans to its Google Earth mapping software.

Technically, Google Earth has always had an ocean, John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps, wrote on the Internet giant’s blog.

“We have always had a big blue expanse and some low-resolution shading to suggest depth,” said Hanke. “But starting today we have a much more detailed bathymetric map (the ocean floor), so you can actually drop below the surface and explore the nooks and crannies of the seafloor in 3D.”

Al Gore was present at the launch at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

"You can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet's surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world's ocean that covers almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions," said Gore.

Google’s oceans were created by a partnership of ocean scientists and advocates, including those from National Geographic, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the US Navy, Scripps Oceanography, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

In his blog, Hanke also thanked Dr . Sylvia Earle, who he said “cornered” him at a conference three years ago to tell him “that Google Earth was great but that it wasn't finished.”

“We on the Google Earth team had been working hard to build a rich 3D map of the world, but we had largely ignored the oceans — two thirds of the planet. Inspired by Sylvia, the team got to work,” Hankhe wrote.

Conservationists hope the tool will raise public awareness for marine life.

"With this, everybody can see the unbelievable beauty of our marine life and how incredibly threatened it is," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the global marine program at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"We hope this major technological innovation will get the public more involved in marine conservation and encourage governments and businesses to stop driving ocean species to extinction."

Additionally, Google Earth 5.0 also features new upgraded services including historical imagery, touring and 3D Mars.
Historical imagery allows users to view a specific region in the present as well as throughout the past.

“Try flying south of San Francisco in Google Earth and turning on the new time slider to witness the transformation of Silicon Valley from a farming community to the tech capital of the world over the past 50 years or so,” Hanke wrote.
With the new touring feature, users can create a sharable, narrated fly-through tour of a certain destination.

And 3D Mars was made with help from NASA to show users a 3D map, including high-resolution imagery of the Red Planet.

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Image Credit:www.techadmire.com

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On The Net:

Google Earth

National Geographic Society

Source: redOrbit staff

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