Sometimes, it’s easy to forget how many things are now possible through technology. Google Earth may not be something that most of us need to use every day, but just knowing it by that name goes a long way to making it feel normal.
Meanwhile, the reality of it is that we have access to a big enough collection of satellite images to show us what the entire world looks like.
Granted, it’s what the world looked like when those photos were taken, but it’s still mind-blowing to realize we can see what any part of the world looks like whenever we feel like it.
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That majesty clearly wasn’t lost on one guy because he’s put together quite a collection of his favorite scenes from Google Earth.
And for that, we’re forever grateful. How did we live before seeing this picture of the underwater tidal channels of the Wadden Sea of Denmark?
A geologist from New Orleans named Will started looking through Google Earth for work, but eventually became interested enough in what he saw to make it a hobby.
As he told Bored Panda, “I tried to find interesting examples of geologic processes to use in lecture presentations.”
“That’s when I started gathering screen shots of cool stuff for myself. Then I decided to share some images on Imgur because my wife was tired of me making her look at them and listen to my explanations.”
But in this case, he doesn’t have much of one. All he knows is that it’s an oddly-shapped clearing in Punjab, India.
As Will said on one of his Imgur galleries, what he writes about each scene is either based on basic internet research or his own guesses.
For instance, he’s deduced that this is a push boat moving a bunch of barges up Alabama’s Tombigbee River.
Sometimes, Will ends up looking at a scene he doesn’t know how to interpret.
Take, for example, this pile of “black stuff” in Douglas, Arizona. He figures it could be a massive pile of waste rock from a mine, but he didn’t see any signs of a mine nearby so he’s not 100% sold on that theory.
This, however, would be a lot easier to recognize for certain history buffs.
That’s because this is an aerial view of Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, which was the site of German defenses on D-Day.
Those craters were apparently preserved since the bombs originally fell on them.
While we’re talking about relics from World War II, here’s a special view from Pearl Harbor.
Specifically, we’re looking at the ruins of the USS Arizona and the memorial built above its final resting place.
The rockier the views get, the more professional Will’s interest in them seems.
This breathtaking view from Iran compelled him to say, “I really like the blue color of the formation ringing the center of the anticline. I need to go there and get a sample. You can see the colors of the formations reflected in the fan.”
However, he found this landmark 50 miles from one of Pakistan’s borders a lot more mysterious.
He figured it was a target for military aircraft, but that theory made him a little nervous because whatever this is, it’s not far from a heavily populated area.
Will was impressed by this delta creeping into Ayyakum Lake in Tibet, but Google didn’t seem to have a name for the river involved.
He also said that water that ends up here started as snowmelt from the mountains peeking out from the bottom.
He also said that the sand dunes in the northwest happen when there’s enough wind to move dunes around, but not enough sand.
It’s almost hard to recognize these as landscapes, but they’re apparently irrigated fields in West Texas.
At least, that’s what the circles are. The white specks are apparently oil pads connected by roads.
Will wondered why the fields had such an orange tint to them, and one commenter from the area said it had to do with the high clay content.
This lush, green view comes from Verdun, France, which was the site of one of the largest battles of World War I.
With that in mind, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that each one of those little squares marks a fort.
Here we see a closer look at one of the forts at Verdun.
Considering the struggles that would’ve occurred at just one of these positions during the war, it’s not difficult to see how the battle escalated to such infamous heights.
The gray line in this photo marks where the Colorado River once ran.
One you take a look at that, it’s not difficult to imagine what all that dusty land surrounding it used to look like when it was possible to farm there.
This is what this area looks like most of the time due to upriver dams.
Not far from that dried-up riverbed is this scene, which shows communities on either side of the U.S./Mexico border.
For his part, Will wasn’t sure whether the difference in color between them had to do with Google stitching images taken at wildly different times together or with the use of different buildings materials.
Although this is shot shows some very cool scenery, it doesn’t leave us with much of a mystery.
What we have here is just the Rio Grande River flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Will doesn’t exactly remember where this lighthouse is, but he knows it’s on one of the Great Lakes.
And no, that doesn’t exactly narrow it down. But the point is that it’s great shot of the circular waves reflecting off of this breakwater.
Out of all of the shots Will collected, this one is his favorite.
It shows ice breaking up at a marina in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and he finds it the most visually-appealing of them all.
Will leaves us with one final thought, “Remember kids, if you can’t be an astronaut, there is always Google Earth.”
Or as Imgur user [DramaticLlamaSyndrome](Or as Imgur user DramaticLlamaSyndrome put it, “It’s like travelling but for poor people! JK this is actually really cool. The world is an amazing place.”) put it, “It’s like travelling but for poor people! JK this is actually really cool. The world is an amazing place.”
So the next time you find yourself with some time to kill, open up good ol’ Google Maps and surprise yourself.
You never know what you could find!
h/t: Imgur | geologistsmakethebedrock
