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Tales from Topographic Oceans

February 2, 2009 11:00pm
by Chris Nuttall

Sylvia Earle demonstrates Ocean in Google EarthEric Schmidt says he has achieved his ambition of climbing Mount Everest, if only from the comfort of his own office using the 3D capabilities of Google Earth.

From today, Google’s chief executive can also plumb the deepest oceans after he announced the launch of “Ocean in Google Earth” at the California Academy of Sciences.

The upgrade to the standalone desktop program is significant. Google has cooperated with the US Navy, the National Geographic Society and dozens of other partners to create a detailed topography of the ocean floor down to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

There are also shipwrecks and bathyspheres created in its Sketchup program and layer upon layer of features picking out marine life, using video, text and photos to tell stories about the ocean ecosystem.

John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps, said the idea was prompted by a conversation in 2006 with Sylvia Earle, founder of the Deep Search Foundation.

“You should really think about renaming [Google Earth], maybe as Google Dirt, because you forgot two-thirds of the planet,” she told him.

Google engineers used a lot of their 20-per-cent time allowed on outside projects to develop the Ocean expansion, he said.
Ocean is part of Google Earth 5.0 released today. Other features include historical imagery, which allows users to activate a time slider to see how the face of the earth has changed over time. Former vice president Al Gore used it at the launch to demonstrate the disappearance of a glacier.

Users can also create their own tours with voiceover narration in the latest version, although neither they nor Eric Schmidt can claim to have personally visited the latest land mass added - a high resolution 3D version of the planet Mars.

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February 2, 2009 11:00pm in Digital media, Internet | Comment

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