A Few More Google Earth Features

As you can probably tell, i have recently spent almost as much time procrastinating on Google Earth as i have on facebook (though not quite haha), and so i thought i'd share just a few more interesting (and some random) things.

You can now take a tour around some of the world's forests in 3D, like this one in Mexico.

The tour even takes you on a quick trip through the undergrowth and then out again.

There is now an option to show sunlight across the planet, it initially sets to the current time and date, but this can be changed using a slider, any location can then be viewed in light or dark conidtions.

Thanks to information provided by USGS, the location of earthquakes can now be viewed as dots. The colour indicates how long ago it occurred (e.g hour/day) and the szie indicates it's size on the Richter scale (there is a key on the side for this).

Plate boundaries with plate movement (indicated by an arrow) can also be viewed, this image shows the San Andreas fault with multiple earthquakes occurring locally within the past day and week.

As if Earth wasn't enough, features from space can now be explored. Beginning with the sky, this is an image of just a small section of space that Google Earth allows you to explore, showing thousands of stars that could only otherwise be seen with a telescope or similar program.

Various constellations can be seen in this image, each can be zoomed in on and explored.

This is an image of the Crab Nebula, the remnants of a past supernova (explosion of a star), various information about it is available from the links on screen.

Here is a single star named Tau 114, many similar stars can be viewed throughout the sky option, food for thought about other solar systems.

The moon is another space feature that can now be explored, here it is shown just like the Earth, there are many links that provide information about different parts of the moon available with the program.

Specific locations are also available, this image shows the landing site of Apollo 14, all other Apollo missions are also available thanks to NASA, other names and locations are also available.

As if the moon wasn't enough, now Mars can be explored too, although the imagery is nowhere near as good as the moon's which in turn is nowhere nar as good as Earth's.

Basics are available with information links where information is known. This image shows one of the two polar ice caps looking not-so-different from our own, just on a smaller scale.

This image displays some of the numerous craters of Mars' surface, not so different from the Moon's and perhaps not so different from the Earth's at some point in it's long geological history.

Some 3D models are now also available under the ocean surface, such as this German shipwreck.

And of course i couldn't forget the famous 3D model of the squid VS the whale.

Perhaps now the name Google 'Earth' is no longer suitable, Google Universe would be more fitting now that the program has expanded so much and has become such a useful learning tool for anyone interested.

The real question is, what will Google do next? Other than singing christmas songs to me on Google search anyway! :)

The Use of Google Earth in Geography

Google Earth is a free program with a virtual Earth that stores much of the world's geographical infromation. It allows you to fly to any location in the world, see 3D buildings, street views, imagery/terrain, cities, businesses, geomorphological features and much more!

It comes in three different versions, one for your internet browser, one for your desktop (example used) and one for your mobile.
The desktop version can be downloaded here on the Google Earth website, the download is only about 6mb which is astounding considering what you can do with the program. The main drawback is that you must be connected to the internet to use it, and if your internet is slow, the program terrain will also be slow to load.

The following examples are taken from the standard desktop version of Google Earth, free to everyone.

This is the startup view of the Google Earth desktop program, from here you can fly to any place in the world using zooming, panning and tilting controls as well as a compass to keep you on track.

If you don't know exactly where to fly, the program has a useful search tool that will enable you to type in what you're looking for and take you straight to it. It is usually successful (as in the image above), however, there are many places that have the same names and so you may have to be more specific in your search than just a city name, for example you may want to include the country name aswell.

This is one of the geomorphological features that can be viewed easily, a meandering river travelling through the Madagascan rainforest. From the image you can see that the river has fairly high sinuosity and three tributaries, you can follow it's course from the source to the mouth effortlessly.

The great Marianas trench, you can explore the area up close and visit the Marianas island arc right next to it.

Ever wonder what the Marianas trench or Mid-Atlantic ridge looks like underwater? With the new oceans option in Google Earth, you can now explore the Earth's underwater terrain where there is data for it. This image was taken from the mid-Atlantic ocean.

You can also view glacial systems, such as this one in Eastern Greenland. As glaciers are such large systems (similar to rivers) it is much easier to study them from a map, and as most maps do not include terrain detail like this Google Earth is a good option.

As well as exploring current glacial systems, you can also investigate areas of past glacial activity, this Tarn in the Lake District in Cumbria is a good example of glacial erosion by a cirque glacier.

Google Earth desktop also includes an option for weather, this example of the UK shows it with and without weather, it displays cloud, precipitation and temperature as well as various other things.

There is also the option of viewing buildings in 3D, this is not available for all locations, but New York City and Dublin are two places where 3D buildings are well created and accurate to real life.

There are many more things that Google Earth can do, for many locations you can view place tags, photos, borders, labels and roads, some places in street view, you can sroll down the street as if you are walking down it.

There are also many view options under the 'oceans' section which allow you to view shipwrecks, dead zones, protected areas, animal tracking and a marine census, all of this is included in the desktop version in addition to ocean exploration pictured above.

The great thing about Google Earth is that it allows you to save images of whatever you find and use them for research or in papers etc. Simply click file > save, and you're done!

There are also many extras that can be added to google earth if you run the latest version, information about the features of the latest version can be found here, this includes the moon, mars, the universe, historical imagery, earthquakes, 3D trees and webcams, plus a whole lot more!

The full list can be found here.

Overall, Google Earth is an excellent tool for a geographer, whether for general exploration, geomorphological investigation or mapping, definately a must have!

Fiji - Bula!

After leaving Australia we headed over to Fiji, we landed at Nandi airport in Viti Levu and stayed at Skylodge resort for a night, the next day we headed to Port Denarau and got a boat to Bounty Island, a small island in the Mammanucas. We had to wear a sarong as it was traditional.
Most of the time we would be in the water or sun bathing, whether we went snorkelling, kayaking, diving or simply just swimming in the pool! Pretty much spent the whole week barefoot with wet hair!
The food was great, a couple of nights we had fish (baracuda and shark), it was SO nice! I also had beans on toast one morning for breakfast right by the sea, so now i feel sad whenever i eat beans on toast as it's usually raining and cold when i look outside!
One day we also took an island hopping trip on a catamaran and visited some Fijian school children to sing with them and tell them why staying in school is such a good idea as so many Fijians go on to work in resorts.

This is a birds eye view of the Bounty Island taken from Google Earth.

As the picture shows, the island is surrounded by various reefs and so snorkelling was great, there was a Reef Safari shop on the island run by crazy diver Dean, on our first day he told us we could become certified SCUBA divers in just a few days after 5 logged dives and an exam. Me and James decided to do it and became dive buddies! Scuba Schools International ftw!

A few snaps from learning to dive:

Me and James learning to set up our gear! Burger With Relish and Fries (BWRAF)

Me in my dive gear ready to start a 3 hour skills session in the pool!

Backwards entry, much scarier off of a little motor boat!

Me, James and diver Dean about to go down and practice underwater skills.

Down we go!

We had to do several things to get our SSI open water diver status, first we had to learn how to set our gear up, then practice various skills in the pool, then do 5 logged dives and pass a multiple choice exam.

Some of the skills we learnt were: to empty our masks of water, equalising pressure, taking our masks off and putting them back on, emergency ascent, retrieving the regulator and the procedure for being out of air, amongst many other things! Diving is definately more complicated than i used to think!

The five logged dives we went on were amazing! We did dives from the shore and boats, our first ever dive was a from the shore dive and the ocean was quite rough and so visibility was quite poor. We could not see a thing on the way out to the reef, we just had to follow a rope, it was a little scary because we were new to using our gear and sharks tend to hunt in such conditions using them as cover.

Unfortunately we did not have an underwater camera to play with so i can't post pictures of the amazing things we saw, but SCUBA diving in Fiji is just as good as Australia!

Here are a few pictures of things we saw, from elsewhere on the internet:

The amazing Fiji clownfish, we saw these guys everywhere!

Picture taken from here

This kind of coral was brilliant for swimming over, if you stop right in the middle and stay still then all the fish will swim out right up to your mask, just be careful not to cut yourself on the coral!

Picture taken from here

We saw these little fish when we went snorkelling on the catamaran trip, if you put your hand out they swarm around it and start biting it (not painfully), hilarious fish!

Picture taken from here

Blue sea stars, we saw them everywhere as they stood out against the coral they were on.

Picture taken from here

The amazing lionfish, definately a beautiful animal, but also very poisonous, our dive instructor went right up to it, but he was a little bit strange!

Picture taken from here

We saw sea cucumbers, many kinds of fish (including many fijian clownfish), blue sea stars, amazing corals (plenty of which released stinging spores) and lots of anemones! One of the best things we saw was a lionfish that lived on Love Reef, it was always just under our boat when we dived in backwards, one of the coolest things i've seen! I even managed to lose my instructor and buddy at one point because i saw a really cool, big buuterfly fish that i followed through a coral tunnel!

In the end after a week of practising, we both passed and got our open water diver status!

We even took a photo in celebration, awesome! Or cool bananas as diver Dean would say :)

Some highlights from the rest of the trip:

The outdoor area in Skylodge resort, Nandi, not a bad place!

More of the resort, there were plenty of toads hopping around this area.

Welcome to Bounty Island! It was super warm regardless of the rain!

They loved to sing for everyone, BOUNTYYYYY ISLANDDDDDD (8)

One of the turtles from the island's conservation program, amazing animals!

One of the many intense games of ping pong we played that week! The old man was pretty good.

Chilling out next to the ocean, 'studying' for our dive exam.

Bounty Island punch, man i miss drinking this! Raspberry, pineapple and ice cream were just a few of the ingredients.

The path leading down from our rooms, beautiful views, there were even hammocks to sleep in.

Scary poles were all over the island! They looked a little totem pole inspired.

Some more scenery of the fantastic beach!

The ocean with a typical Fijian boat.

View of the ocean from the pool on a VERY hot day.

The day we all went out sailing on a catamaran and got absolutely roasted, we got to do some amazing snorkelling though!

View of Bounty Island when we were off on one of the boat trips, spot the reef and where we used to eat everyday.

The day we went to an island to visit one of the local Fijian villages.

Stunning views of the island and clear aquamarine waters, paradise!

Part of the village, the chief's house is the one with the big roof, we had an introduction ceremony with him where we all had to drink Kava.

Shopping! I've never said bula (Fijian for hello) so many times in my life!

The school children singing for us, adoreable!

Trip to a deserted island, mainly for sunbathing and swimming purposes :D

Some of the island.

It took ocean views to a new level!

Our attempt at building a hermit crab arena, the little things were everywhere.

Hermit crab up close :)

Group photo of the New Zealand and Australia volunteers!

Me, Lucy and Matt on Bounty Island.

Matt, me and James on Bounty Island.

Us back in Sydney before departing for London, our last journey together after travelling 47564376573465348 miles in 5 weeks, sad times!

Going to Fiji was an amazing experience as their culture is so different from ours and of course the weather and scenery is pretty amazing! Fiji was also much cheaper than Australia and even than the UK, tobacco and alcohol were very cheap indeed!

The people were also amazingly friendly, particularly to those from the UK, even though the queen has now excluded them from the commonwealth due to a new political regime. There was never enough the resort workers could do for you and people everywhere would say bula to you, making us all feel at home.

It is definately a great place to go for any fellow SCUBA divers! If you have a problem with water or boats it is probably not the best destination for you, although one of my friends was a bit scared of water as she couldn't really swim and she was okay, but she had to miss out on snorkelling/diving/kayaking/swimming, which were some of the best things about the trip.

Fiji was definately a 10/10 experience :)