Google Earth 'helps discover El Dorado'
source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article6982391.ece
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- richjm
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It's tempting to assume all explorers now actually just stay at home and idly browse Google Earth on the off chance they'll spot a country that nobody knew existed but apparently they still get out there, travel the world and punch the odd snake in the throat. Do snakes have throats? Are they one long throat?
I digress.
Google Earth *does* play a part in helping scientists and archeologists find out more about far-off places that remain relatively unmapped. Recently a small team of scientists have used the service to explore what they think is El Dorado, an ancient city that people have been trying to find for over 500 years.
The Times reports:
"Three scientists have now come close to doing just that. The journal Antiquity has published a report showing more than 200 massive earthworks in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil’s border with Bolivia. From the sky it looks as if a series of geometric figures has been carved into the earth, but the archeologists and historians who published the report believe these shapes are the remains of roads, bridges, moats, avenues and squares that formed the basis for a sophisticated civilisation spanning 155 miles, which could have supported a population of 60,000. The remains date from AD200 to 1283."
While Google Earth wasn't behind the discovery, it's been crucial in building on the information and finding out more about the area in a way that would have previously involved cost, man power and a fair amount of risk.
If you want to see one of the structures in Google Earth: S 08 50’ 38”, W 67 15’ 11”
or S 08 52’ 32”, W 67 14’ 42”
or S 8 43’ 13”, W 67 10’ 34”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article6982391.e...
I digress.
Google Earth *does* play a part in helping scientists and archeologists find out more about far-off places that remain relatively unmapped. Recently a small team of scientists have used the service to explore what they think is El Dorado, an ancient city that people have been trying to find for over 500 years.
The Times reports:
"Three scientists have now come close to doing just that. The journal Antiquity has published a report showing more than 200 massive earthworks in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil’s border with Bolivia. From the sky it looks as if a series of geometric figures has been carved into the earth, but the archeologists and historians who published the report believe these shapes are the remains of roads, bridges, moats, avenues and squares that formed the basis for a sophisticated civilisation spanning 155 miles, which could have supported a population of 60,000. The remains date from AD200 to 1283."
While Google Earth wasn't behind the discovery, it's been crucial in building on the information and finding out more about the area in a way that would have previously involved cost, man power and a fair amount of risk.
If you want to see one of the structures in Google Earth: S 08 50’ 38”, W 67 15’ 11”
or S 08 52’ 32”, W 67 14’ 42”
or S 8 43’ 13”, W 67 10’ 34”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article6982391.e...
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Sam_the_Wizer
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Yeah! Snake puncher!
- 2 years ago
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Sam_the_Wizer
