OMG! Did Google Earth find Atlantis?

Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something. Since I always appreciate a nice juicy conspiracy theory, I'm going to go with the latter.

Is this Atlantis? Apparently not, according to those meanies at Google.

(Credit: Google Earth)

From what it sounds like, a British aeronautical engineer was playing around with the new Google Earth 5.0, which includes undersea data, and noticed something funny off the coast of Africa, about 600 miles west of the Canary Islands, that resembled a pattern of a street grid. According to the United Kingdom's Press Association, the pattern of streets equated to an area the size of Wales.

In case you've had more important things to read about for the past few thousand years, Atlantis was a legendary island city first mentioned by Plato, allegedly a hard-core naval power located somewhere near North Africa that disappeared when it sank into the ocean. Guess global warming was a problem back then, too.

Anyway, most people think that Plato made it up, kind of like how those guys in Georgia made up the story about shooting Bigfoot, but others just won't stop believin'.

So this guy is trawling the ocean floor with Google Earth--ah, if only we had that kind of free time on our hands--and was quick to announce his discovery. It looks like The Telegraph reported the story first, adding that the exact coordinates are 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W.

Recently, Google's mapping products have revealed everything from a creepy dude walking around with a sniper rifle to what appear to be U.S. drones in Pakistan.

But when it comes to Atlantis, Google totally had to rain on everyone's parade. "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth, including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa," a statement from Google read. "In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data."

I smell a cover-up!

In other news, that pendulum map on last week's "Lost" was totally awesome.

[mrcjacobs]

I'm organizing an expedition right now to go and lay claim for salvage rights!

[keonih]

COOL THAT MEANS U WON'T BE GABBING HERE...BYE....

[cactus2jack]

think ive found another "thing"... no way it could be caused by earth quakes r anything, BTW totally new to this, but I can tell that this isnt "mother nature" made.

these lines are straight, but they dont stay in the same "continues" line, and if u look close they make squares, I dont know myself, thats why im posting, to see what you think . dont know how to use this, so will try to give co-ordinates >> 14o 24`17.99"N 55o 41`09.52"W elev -5382 m , let me know what yas think.

[Kev_Orng]

Grid-like city street patterns are a fairly modern invention. I would expect Atlantis to be a little more curvy

[martin1212]

Actually you couldn't be more wrong. Grid layouts have been around for thousands of years, Roman, Greek and Chinese civilizations all used them as well as several even earlier cultures.

[StretcherBearerBand]

In the Description given by plato, Atlantis was a City oc Concentric Cicles, Canals, and bridges in a Circular pattern. In The song Atlantis, Donovan Sings and talks.....But seriously, Atlantian Legend tells of a city of concentric circles.
And If the lines represented are the work of sonorous relctions and the path that the boat took, My Question....Is this the guy who drove the Valdez oil Tanker drunk? Nah it resembles an early civilization city layout, But the Size of Wales? thas maore like a Principality size Pretty big comparitivly speeking to a typical City of the ancient world. Atlantis Probably not, early Huge City-State? Maybe, Underwater Scientology UFO PROOF DEFINitve PROOF?... Sorry I guess Ray-Bans And Tighty whiteys IS right...Christ L. Ron Hubbards coming back with a trunkload of more poorly wriiten crap Sci-Fi Manuscripts! It truly is the end of days...******* big Brother....

[DustyWusty]

No concentric circles = No Atlantis. NEXT QUESTION.

[bluemudkipz]

I agree with Stretcher and Dusty. (If you two prefer to be referred to differently, sorry about that.) Atlantis' city plan is made of concentric circles. Close but no cigar, Google Earth. Actually, not even that close.

[Lerianis]

And Plato couldn't be wrong? I mean, he admittedly, in his own words, had never been to Atlantis himself...... so it's probable that he could have gotten the 'concentric streets' thing wrong. I mean.... NO city uses concentric streets that I know of... something doesn't sound right there.

[keonih]

Its a city, not Pamela Anderson, think city streets not swimsuit edition ok?

[trd1282]

"Grid-like city street patterns are a fairly modern invention."

Harappa, 3600 B.C.

[bigdingaling]

We have Centric circles in our Nations capital city 'Lerianis' - do a google maps search for "Canberra, Australia"

Stupid town planners thought it was a good idea, turns out it makes it difficult to navigate. Plus it looks ugly unless u live in space. If Atlantis is ever found....we may discover the builders were just like Canberra town planners -stupid.

[ppgreat]

Actually it's the burial ground for all those mythical 'purchased' Vista disks.

[Eljaygee]

First of all, none of you have ever seen or been to Atlantis. For that matter, neither did Plato. His information was based on hearsay for who knows how long in the past and from how many people.
All any one has to do is to look at the city layouts of Sumer, Egypt, Greece and other ancient cultures and you will see that rectangular grid patterns existed before the more creative circle designs.
It is clear that the Powers That Be want to close the case on this in order to monopolize the search and findings in the hope of finding 'Alien" artifacts just like they have in Iraq and when they went to the Moon in the 60s and 70,s.
You people have to look with better eyes.

[ralfthedog]

Eljaygee , No I have not been to Atlantis. I have seen the TV show on the SCIFI channel. This city looks nothing like the one on TV. I have also been to Atlanta. It looks nothing like that either. It could be Tulsa.

[Angmarr]

along with the Mac Airs

[OMGMagicCow]

I agree with Ejaygee.
And ralf do you know how dumb you sound 'i saw atlantis on tv'?
None of us have seen Ataltnis. And jsut because Plato says how it looks like, ven thouh he hasnt actually been there, you think you know all about it.
Then again, ATlantis is legend. The definition of legend is a made up story.

[keonih]

ADOLESCENT

[chrisfrary]

OMGMagiccow... That was clearly a joke...thanks for taking it seriously though

[ebmace]

Would aqueducts or canals be straight (grid-like) or curvy?

[Kev_Orng]

Not sure, how did they do it on Mars?

[hi_im_bob]

If you can keep a secret I will reluctantly share with you, that is a new Google Data Center.

[caroline.mccarthy]

Ha! Comment of the day award!

[blusky08]

It could be an underwater base--either human or extraterrestrial.
There are many reports of USOs (Unidentified Submersible Objects). Presumably, "they" would need bases.

[appletoys]

ahhh! I'm telling on you.

[dnomyar34]

Instant Truth: On earth, at 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W, Google will be using fuel cells to cool its data center, thus the need for large amounts of water and an organized array of roads to transport those hard drives that keep buning out.

[rangrand]

Actually, you aren't too far off with that guess. In September Google applied for a patent for off-shore water powered data centers. The issue with this patent is that if the data centers are off-shore, depending on distance - they aren't governable by any countries laws . Meaning all those "Rules of the Web" that tell crawlers what content they may or may not crawl and how content may be used, stored and retained become unenforceable.

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080209234%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080209234&RS=DN/20080209234

It would be interesting if it were Atlantis though. I would much prefer that be Atlantis than to know Google is planning to build data centers that the government can't control. Google's great but who really wants all content on their computer and web correspondence (and I mean ALL) to be in the hands of the destroyers of "privacy".

[fusillijerry]

yeah, descriptions of Atlantis were concentric circles with harbors and bridges between them. Could be something, but Atlantis it's not. Sorry. Read more Plato if you don't believe me.

[nephari]

Spoilsport!

[NASAcrew]

Google could make this claim if they did not have a cloud of doubt over their operation. However, since they currently use Gov. tools to gather data, and publish the data given to them, I have reservations about their claims.

It would be great if a 3rd party Scientific Group without US ties could take a "Look under the Covers". This seems to be a natural fit for Francine Cousteau, President of the Cousteau Society to undertake, in great honor of her late husband!

[tangogaucho1]

Better yet, send the Pink Panther and Mr. Clouseau!!!

[professionaladventurer]

This place is not a secret, several have visited in the last 10 years.

[thelemurking]

You won't find Atlantis on Google Earth... it's in the Pegasus galaxy. Sheesh, it only took Daniel Jackson like 6 or 7 years to figure it out.

[CorwinB]

Not years, Seasons! Seasons!

[MadLyb]

Awesome!

[muzakaz]

That was a fun, cheap thrill. Darn it!

[Kev_Orng]

Actually, you'd probably enjoy Googlesightseeing.com

From funny stuff to interesting stuff. People passed out on their own lawn, ship graveyards. The animals in Africa are awesome (google used hi-res photos from a plane to get in closer than the satellite image).
And they've been at it for a while now, so the archives are full of good stuff

[egghead1619]

It kind of looks like a ship from the Vogon Constructor Fleet that misjudged the distance and slammed into the ocean floor leaving behind its footprint. This probably alerted the dolphins who appealed to the galactic government for a temporary hold on construction of an interstellar bypass through our orbit. The dolphins have since been trying to convince us to contest this construction, yet unfortunately we have misunderstood their intentions.

[emodkate]

<snigger> dolphins - not as smart as they think.

[StretcherBearerBand]

Curse the Volgon s, and their Damn Poetry! Now I sit here rocking back and forth all day, until THE STAFF comes aroung with my sleepytime meds.....

[Dalkorian]

The dolphins ain't the dumb ones here emodkate.

[Inconnux]

If you look carefully you can read 'so long and thanks for all the fish'...

[Dylan_Wisor]

So sad it had to come to this.

[Sporlo]

I love those books (just had to say it)

[XenonofArcticus]

Crikey, people are idiots.

Bathymetry (underwater terrain) is created from satellite/gravitometer data, as well as sonar traces and sounding from research ships. These areas seen here are where a research ship did a grid-search pattern while taking soundings. This (sparse) data was then merged into the surrounding very-low-detail data, which makes it stand out and look artificial. The only artificial bit is that it is high-detail data inset in a grid-pattern caused by the ship that acquired the data.

You can probably find many instances of odd patterns of sounding-tracks all over the world.

It's not frickin' Atlantis.

[StretcherBearerBand]

I Insist that you take a Bath, then measure it using sattalite and bats sonor, then meticulously mere this data to find the atificial patten that lurks in the syntax of pseudo-intellectuals that don't understand that nTHERE IS NO POINT TO ARGUING whether or not it is Atlantis...It's more likely that it has to do with fracture and fissures( those thing you get on your bum from sitting and playing warcraft or some other nonsense all day long in you Spock t-shirt) Underwater landsslides, sublimation of plates, It's near mozabique right? Probably close to a faultline since well, This thing called PLATE tectonics, happens where plate boudries meet. Underwater crap can be Huge **** shook loose, and roll around in wierd ways, the seafloors, kinda slimy in the tropic, subtropic regions, and water helps move stuff around, by the moons gravitation( TIDE PULL) effects on the ear in the equatorial regions, causing it to to swell, and elongate, kind of like a half-flattened dough ball, and contract, Neat, Earth Sciences, and Working in the Astrogeological/Cartographical Divison of the USGS as a janitor payed off!
Who Cares if it's Atlantis, there examples of 20 different societies pre Plato, that are plausible canidates, It's a METAPHOR.....You Don't care, Battle star Glactica is ending soon, So Who's the Silo or grain loft o whatever the hell ever...Do they still have tweeky on ther BEEDEEBEEDEE

[Dalkorian]

You're both way out to lunch, as is Caroline. It's a marking from the grey aliens telling other aliens that they have already been here. Kind of like when we paint a large X on a building after we've searched it for survivors after a disaster.

[Lazarus522]

People may be idiots, but at least most don't start their comment with "Crikey".

[annuit_coeptis]

XenonofArcticus is not only square-on with the explanation but I'll direct y'all's attention to another area with sparsely scattered bathymetric data: the Arctic seas. Reason: Kinda hard to ping the bottom of the ocean when your path is blocked by an ice cap.

Unless you happen to be underneath that ice.

Take a look, particularly east of the Svalbards (north of Norway, with its award-winning coast). Some nice precise sounding points zig-zagging around what is otherwise a map of educated guesswork. I should know. I helped leave some of those "trails".

Sincerely,
Slartibartfast's Right-Hand Man

[dnomyar34]

Why in all Googles images of earth, only the state of Oregon, USA is 100% High Res.?

[JBSimmons]

Well, as a PBS Special put it, Oregon is the #1 home to meth labs. Perhaps that's why the DEA probably wanted it in HighRes first... So I guess they twisted Google's arm to do it...

[inachu]

So Google took a image of sonic sonar sounds..........

yeah right.

[egghead1619]

How intelligent you are. The images you think Google took, are in fact computer generated topographic maps based on the sonar data received from ships and aircraft. If these were true images, then you would not see the bottom of the ocean, rather the surface and maybe 10m down.

[Bob_299]

The Atlantis legend is surrounded by too much goofiness. There appears to be a compelling archeological case for identifying the Mediterranean volcanic island of Santorini with Atlantis, leaving an Atlantis that was much like (and culturally related to) Bronze Age Crete. Otherwise, one is left with castles in the sky.

[Kev_Orng]

So it's not made up of interconnected space-age round buildings arranged in stacks, protected by a glass dome and inhabited by mer-people driving water-cars like an underwater George Jetson?

Drat.

[Hunnter2k3]

It is obviously an underwater city that the governments of the world are building to house all their smartest people.

[Dalkorian]

No, I get it - it's where Saddam hid his WMD's!

LOL - ;-)

[Earth16]

Then it won't be very large.

[viper396]

Thankfully you'll never be there.

[georgegumpert]

Looks like it shows up in Google Earth 4.3 as well...ah well.

[chrisaroz]

The pendulum was cool, but it didn't look like the map moved. If that's the case, wouldn't the pendulum ALWAYS mark the spot in the middle? Doesn't seem very practical.

Oh, and Atlantis yada yada yada Stargate yada yada yada.

[someguynamedbob]

ITS THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTA

[ikramerica--2008]

And the magician. And Jane Fonda was there too...

[MadLyb]

It's not just a Delta Hub!