Tech | February 21, 2009 | 11 comments

Google Earth's 'Atlantis' just a data glitch

source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=214502197&ci...

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"The addition of sea-floor topography to Google Earth earlier this month revealed what some claim could be the lost city of Atlantis.

But Google (NSDQ: GOOG) says the undersea grid lines spotted by aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford while browsing Google Earth's ocean maps are data artifacts rather than sunken streets.

"[W]hat users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process," a Google spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. "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. The fact that there are blank spots between each of these lines is a sign of how little we really know about the world's oceans."
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