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Google Earth dives down deep

Print | Comments () Posted by Beth Daley February 5, 2009 08:51 AM

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By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

You’ve probably used Google Earth to zoom in your neighborhood and maybe even Greenland to check out the glaciers.

But now, it's is going to let you plunge into the rest of the world – the oceans that make up 70 percent of the planet.

Developed in part with expertise at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and New England Aquarium, you can dive beneath the surface to explore shipwrecks and deep sea mounts, track ocean expeditions, learn about which fish are caught sustainably and even follow the path of past hurricanes. You can hone in on the oceans through 20 different “layers” that include stunning underwater features to ocean sports.

After checking out some Fangtooth fish in the Atlantic and a shipwreck off the Maldives, I zoomed in off the coast of New England to check out what I thought would be utterly familiar territory. After all, I’ve covered the ocean as part of the environmental beat for years.

But seeing it this way is fascinating. I checked out the prolific fishing grounds of Georges Bank, clicked on a lesson about endangered right whales and even discovered something I never knew before: The “Liberty Ship”, a steamer grounded on the sand flats of New Jersey was towed to Cape Cod to be used as target practice for the military.

Google Earth is a work in process and more content will be added in coming months and years to each area. But if you want to surf the ocean – or learn more about what may be luking right off our shore – it opens up a perspective you’ve probably never experienced before.

If you are curious what Woods Hole contributed, check out the "explore the oceans" and "expeditions" layer. Their contributions include "deep explosive volcanoes" in the Arctic and "Luck of the Alvin" in the Mediterranean. See if you can find them.