Google Earth has given us a view of the world few got to see even a decade ago — and we don’t even have to leave our homes to explore the world.
Which is good, because the world can be a scary place! The evidence is right on Google Earth!
1. Google Earth will take you right to the edge of a boiling cauldron of lava.
You can almost feel the heat! This volcano is on an island in the Vanuatu chain in the South Pacific.
RELATED STORIES
2. This mysterious triangle in the Nevada desert.
Meanwhile, in nearby Nevada, there’s this triangle with a bunch of circles inside it carved into the desert. So, maybe this is aliens? Some suggest it’s an old bomb testing site or an abandoned air strip…
3. Lots of people will mug for the camera or play out scenes for the Google car, but this doesn’t look staged at all.
Whether it’s okay or not to roam the streets with a rifle in Russia, this happened.
4. A 1200 foot Pentagram in Kazakhstan.
This five-pointed star has literally been etched into the Earth’s surface, and so far, no one’s been able to explain why or how it got there!
5. The way the cliffs along this stretch of coastline are shaded make it look like the ocean is about to come pouring onto land.
6. Ever wondered what it’s like to be behind a jet when it powers its engines up? Wonder no more.
This satellite view provides a pretty graphic explanation of the forces at work here.
7. Google Earth managed to catch this raging field fire in Arkansas on its camera, too.
A Reddit user commented that the fire is probably controlled since there are people on the south side, but that doesn’t make it any less cool!
8. Can you spy the Coca-Cola sign in this desert in Chile?
Has product placement gone so far? Search coordinates -18.529211, -70.249941 and you’ll see where a Coca-Cola logo has been drawn onto a hillside in Chile. There are also pictures of it from the ground, for the record.
9. Google Earth also has an image of Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.
There are a lot of historical photos that Google couples with current satellite images, and not all of them are pleasant.
10. Also in Japan, this shrinking village is slowly being ‘repopulated’ with life-size dolls.
One woman, Ayano Tsukimi, is responsible for the 350 dolls around the village that she made to replace all the people who have died or left the village throughout her life.
11. This shipwreck is known as the “floating forest.”
Australia sent the SS Ayrfield into a well-earned retirement back in the ’70s after seeing action as a supply ship in WWII. But it earned a sort of new life in retirement when trees took root in the hull, making it a popular tourist sight.
12. There is a blood-red lake just outside of Sadr City in Iraq that can be seen from Google Earth.
So far, there is no explanation as to why the lake is this color.
13. The wreckage of the Costa Concordia and the salvage effort are visible on Google Earth.
14. A photo of a skull was found in Novaya Zemlya, Russia and hundreds of theories are now rushing through my head.
According to a commenter on Imgur , this is the site of the world’s largest nuclear detonation, Tsar Bomba.
15. This photo of a gaunt horse eating garbage in Brazil showcases the haunting reality for many animals and people in the country.
The area appears to have since been replaced with new photographs, but the screenshot lives on.
16. This giant face has eroded into clay in Alberta, Canada.
The formation is referred to as the “Badlands Guardian.” This is entirely natural, though somewhat eerie.
17. Davie Lee Niles went missing in 2006. His body wasn’t found until Google captured an image of his car inside of a lake.
The reason the car wasn’t seen before was because it was too murky at ground level.
18. What I’m sure was supposed to be innocent cosplay looks much creepier when viewing it from Google Earth.
While this type of thing is relatively common in Japan, it is certainly a bit less common everywhere else.
19. Speaking of abandoned towns, this is Gunkanjima, Japan, an island once dedicated to coal mining. At its peak, it was the most densely populated area in the world.
When the coal ran out, the island city was simply abandoned.
20. This “sea monster” can be found off the coast of Antarctica’s Deception Island.
Theories suggest it could be anything from an underwater UFO to the Kraken to the Loch Ness monster (apparently on vacation from Loch Ness). In all likelihood, it’s probably a blue whale.
21. This secret bunker hidden in New Mexico’s deserts
This strange symbol etched into the earth is reported to be the “alien space cathedral” of the Church of Scientology. If you look closely you can see a private airstrip built for the church’s leaders.
22. One of the more amazing (and creepy) views on Google Earth is Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona — better known as the Airplane Boneyard.
Established after WWII, the Arizona Boneyard has become the largest site of its kind in the world.
23. Sadly, Lunik IX has company. This is El Bronx, an infamous ghetto in Bogota, Colombia.
Apparently the area was raided and cleared out by Colombia’s armed forces, but it lives on in Google Street View.
24. This crater was caused by a 150-foot slab of nickel iron that fell from space.
Northern Arizona still bears the scar of a 50,000 year-old meteor strike. The Barringer Crater was created with the exploding force of 2.5 million tons of TNT, about 150 times the force of the Hiroshima atomic blast.
25. Probably one of the more depressing sights you can find on Google Street View is Lunik IX in Slovakia, an infamous Roma ghetto without much in the way of running water, electricity, or heating.
And yes, that’s a small child on the ground in the sun, with no adults in sight.
26. The home of Ariel Castro is blurred out on Google Earth, and that might make this screenshot even more haunting.
Ariel Castro held three women hostage in his home in Cleveland for over 10 years. The home was demolished but the space is still blurred on Google Earth.
27. This is more than a teen thinking it would be funny to point a gun at the Google car.
This is the same house where a baby was found dead in a closet with no cause of death determined, and no charges laid. The image has since been blurred by Google.
28. Upon first glance, it looks like you are staring at dumpsters full of dead bodies.
Luckily, they’re just a bunch of mannequins, but that doesn’t make them any less terrifying.
29. Canadian artist Jon Rafman takes interesting screenshots on Google Earth and posts them online.
While some of them are actually quite beautiful, this one is extremely alarming. I’d love to know what’s going on here.
30. This aerial view of a dock sure looks sinister.
Could be a crime scene right out of Law & Order, amirite? It’s easy to see how folks might think someone was caught dumping a body, but the clues don’t add up — these coordinates are for a public park in the Netherlands, where zero people would ever dump a body in broad daylight.
31. Crazy enough, these Google cameras caught the aftermath of a collision at a major intersection.
With one of the cars off the road, you really have to hope everyone was okay.
32. And finally, here we see the final resting place of the S.S. Jassim.
It’s not the only shipwreck you can see on Google Earth, but it’s one of the largest.
