Andre Yoskowitz
23 Feb 2009 0:16
Princeton defines the mythical city of Atlantis as "according to legend, an island in the Atlantic Ocean that Plato said was swallowed by an earthquake."
The Internet flared with rumors this weekend however that the fabled city had been found using the updated version of the satellite mapping software Google Earth.
A British aeronautical engineer fiddling with the updated 5.0 software noticed a strange 'street grid' pattern underwater about 600 miles off the west coast of Africa, and the size of Wales. For those interested, the exact coordinates are 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W.
Google has since denied the rumors though: "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...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."
We recently reported that a marijuana field spotted in Switzerland using the mapping software led to the arrest of 16 people and the seizure of 1.2 tons of marijuana with a street value of $2.5 million USD.
'Atlantis' pic from Google Earth: