Someone has just found a sea monster off Antarctica using Google Earth

Toby Meyjes for Metro.co.uk

Sunday 19 Jun 2016 5:17 pm

"Kraken" spotted on Google Earth

It is said to have terrorised ships off Norway and Greenland for centuries but now it seems the mystery of the Kraken has been solved – thanks to Google Earth.

If you’re not familiar with the tale of the perhaps-not-mythical sea monster, references date back to the late 13th Century and mostly revolve around a huge tentacled monster devouring ships and men.

Some stories mention it as having tentacles, while others that it is more like a massive whale.

Either way, it doesn’t sound like something you’d want to come across when on voyage of any kind.

Sightings of the Kraken have died down recently, which suggest that either it too has gone to a watery grave, or, on new evidence, may have migrated to a new life near Antarctica.

Taken near Deception Island in the South Shetlands it shows a ‘fin’ or rock or something breaking the surface of the water with a larger body underneath.

All in all it is fairly alarming.

Read more: 

Protect the Mozambique forest found on Google Earth, scientists say

A remote rainforest in Mozambique discovered using Google Earth has so many new and unique species that it should be declared a protected area, scientists say.

Pygmy chameleons, a bronzed bush viper and butterflies with shimmering yellow wings are among the species in the forests covering Mount Mabu in northern Mozambique.

Continued

Rare animal-shaped mounds discovered in Peru by MU anthropologist

For more than a century and a half, scientists and tourists have visited massive animal-shaped mounds, such as Serpent Mound in Ohio, created by the indigenous people of North America. But few animal effigy mounds had been found in South America until University of Missouri anthropology professor emeritus Robert Benfer identified numerous earthen animals rising above the coastal plains of Peru, a region already renowned for the Nazca lines, the ruined city of Chan Chan, and other cultural treasures. "The mounds will draw tourists, one day," Benfer said. "Some of them are more than 4,000 years old. Compare that to the effigy mounds of North America, which date to between 400 and 1200 AD. The oldest Peruvian mounds were being built at the same time as the pyramids in Egypt."

Benfer identified the mounds, which range from five meters (16.5 feet) to 400 meters (1,312 feet) long in each of the six valleys he surveyed in coastal Peru. The mounds pre-date ceramics and were probably built using woven baskets to carry and pile up rock and soil.

Like the Nazca lines, which include a series of giant animal outlines drawn on the ground to the south, the animal mounds were best observed from a higher vantage point. Google Earth images of the mounds revealed the shapes of birds, including a giant condor, a 5,000 year-old orca, a duck, and a caiman/puma monster seen in bone and rock carvings from the area.

"The finding of animal effigy mounds where there were none before changes our conception of early Peruvian prehistory," Benfer said. "That they probably represent the Andean zodiac is also a new find. A controversial interpretation of some Nazca figures as representations of the zodiac is supported by these mounds."

Benfer suggested the structures may have been built as terrestrial manifestations of constellations the ancient Peruvians saw in the stars above. The mounds not only represented the stars, they aligned with them. So far, Benfer has found astronomical orientations at every giant mound.

Read on:  http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/03/29/rare.animal.shaped.mounds.discovered.peru.mu.anthropologist

Thieves 'using Google Earth to steal koi carp'

Thieves are using Google Earth to steal expensive koi carp from homeowners' ponds, police believe.

They are believed to be using Internet mapping systems to identify gardens with ponds so they can take the sought-after specimens.

Twelve thefts of the exotic fish and pond equipment, some of which are worth hundreds of pounds, have been reported over a three-week period across Hull, East Yorks.

Humberside Police Community Support Officer Sam Gregory said all the evidence suggests the culprits are using the Internet to seek out their targets.

Google Earth provides satellite photos detailed enough to see what is in people's back gardens.
PCSO Gregory said: "Google shows what is in your garden and you can see people's ponds.

"One of the properties targeted has an eight foot fence and is set back from the road.

"The pond is in the corner and can't be seen.

"Unless you were standing right next to the wall, you wouldn't be able to hear the running water."

Robert Barnes lost four koi carp and expensive lilies from his pond. The 65 year-old said: "They took the smaller fish, probably because they last longer out of the water.

"My neighbour later told me she had seen two young men with a bike with a box on it and a big black net."

Nigel Dawson, 40, woke up one morning to find his expensive filter system and 13 koi carp had been taken from his back garden.

He said: "I am devastated. I didn't see or hear anything."

A spokesperson for Google said the search engine was just one provider of such satellite images.
They said: "Google Earth is built from information that is available worldwide from a wide range of both commercial and public sources.

"As such, Google Earth creates no appreciable increase in security risks, given the wide commercial availability of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world.

"Criminals could use maps, phones and getaway cars but no one would argue that these technologies are responsible for the crime itself, that responsibility lies with the perpetrator."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/5673044/Thieves-using-Google-Earth-to-steal-koi-carp.html