Google Earth continues to play a role in helping scientists, historians, and armchair researchers make discoveries about the past. Here are two recent stories to come across my scans (note: neither of these directly involve GE being used to make the discovery, but in each case both the story is interesting and GE plays a role).
Early African Mammal Fossils – Paleontologists from the University of Michigan report on the discovery of 20-40 million year-old mammal fossils in a rock quarry in Egypt. The story is a bit intriguing due to how it came about – first through a whale skeleton discovered in a block of limestone. Then, more significantly for this post, paleontologist Philip Gingerich used Google Earth to discover which rock quarry the fossil came from. Finally, the paleontologists confirmed they had found the right site in person and discovered a cache of ancient fossils. Read more details in the news release.
Nelson’s Trees – This story came through my news scanner because most stories are reporting Google Earth’s involvement, however it appears Google Maps/Earth are only playing a role in making more people aware of the locatin. According to the DailyMail, the UK’s National Trust is trying to draw more attention to this historical site by sharing the location in Google Earth/Maps. It’s an interesting story. Just a mile east of Stonehenge lies a living memorial to Nelson’s Battle of the Nile. A Baron planted a bunch of trees representing the ships during the battle to commemorate it. Each tree apparently represents a ship in the battle. It would be really interesting to see a map overlay from the battle to see how closely the plantings match the map. You can see Nelson’s Trees in Google Earth here .
Here are just a few other stories where Google Earth played even greater roles in discoveries: