It's not Atlantis, let's find the Loch Ness Monster!

Tue 24 February 2009 10:34, Bas van den Beld

Google is supposed to be a search engine. But with all the 'extra's' they are serving you can hardly think of them as 'just a search engine' anymore. One of their 'extra's' however seemed to have found something interesting. And as you know searching leads to finding. Google Earth supposedly found the lost city of Atlantis.

It was buzzing all week last week about the 'discovery' on Google Earth. Markings in the ocean on the west coast of Africa showed a pattern which could indicate there once was a city there. But the buzz is gone now, Google officially told us we had not seen Atlantis, nor aliens.

The marks found are nothing more than "ship tracks", http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/atlantis-no-it-atlant-isnt.html. The ship tracks are the result of measuring the depth of the Ocean using sound waves. By measuring the time it takes for sound to travel from a ship to the sea floor and back you can find out how deep the ocean is at that point. The tracks are produced by the sounds.

According to Google lots of places like the one found near Africa can be found all over the Oceans. This one just is more clear then others because "the soundings produced by a ship are also about 1% deeper than the data we have in surrounding areas". This is caused by an error which make the tracks more visible than others.

If you think that Google has covered the entire ocean you're wrong. Echosounding might be the best way but it also takes a lot of time and money to do it. According to Google there is about 20,000 square kilometers of gaps between each different track. The other parts are not measured but predicted.

If Google would be echosounding the entire Ocean it would be using 200 ship-years. And though Google has got cars and even airplanes, they don't have that many ships to do the entire 'coverage'.

So Atlantis will stay hidden for a while. But maybe Google could go and hunt for the Loch Ness Monster...?

<Brits are afraid of... cats?

Social Networking is growing in ...>

Comment

A New Look for Google Maps

Thu 16 May 2013, Seema Sanghavi

1 comment

Google made a big announcement at its I/O conference yesterday in San Francisco. The ever popular Google Maps has received a makeover. The search giant previewed its n...... read more

Crowdfunding to Eliminate Silico...

Tue 14 May 2013, Seema Sanghavi

0 comments

Crowdfunding to Eliminate Silicon Valley Poverty

Many of us think of the Silicon Valley as a hub for all things technology, however, most people are not aware of a lingering problem in the area, poverty. According to...... read more

Facebook redesigns the news feed

Fri 8 Mar 2013, Tamara Yadvichuk

0 comments

Yesterday the world’s number one social network introduced a major transformation of their key feature, the news feed. Following the trend toward a simpler...... read more

BlackBerry Keeps Moving Together...

Wed 27 Feb 2013, Vitto Christaldi

0 comments

BlackBerry Keeps Moving Together with Alicia Keys

“New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do. Now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel bra...... read more