TIGHAR

Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Heath Smith on June 26, 2012, 04:07:11 AM

Title: Something odd on Google Earth image
Post by: Heath Smith on June 26, 2012, 04:07:11 AM
Perhaps it is nothing but it appears to be made made. It is about 275ft South of where Glickman placed the Bevington object.

Attached is the .kmz with a marker. Look 50ft toward shore from the marker. There appears to be something triangular in shape. It could be coral but appears to be very large (almost 18ft on each side).
Title: Re: Something odd on Google Earth image
Post by: Tom Swearengen on June 26, 2012, 05:49:21 AM
Heath---I dont know. During one one the expeditions, Ric and others, Mark maybe, walked at low tide all the way to the reef edge. Andrew and others dove the area, and found nothing. Gee, I wish there was something there, but if so, it wasnt there at that time. BUT----we know the wave action does move some things around. Martys satelitte image also doesnt show anything, that I saw, but I'm still looking at it. What we need to look for is underwater---and we'll see that soon.
Tom
Title: Re: Something odd on Google Earth image
Post by: Heath Smith on June 26, 2012, 05:52:28 AM
Tom,

I am not 100% positive but I believe the image shown in Google Earth is somewhat dated. My memory is that it was from 2007.

Since the thing in question is right near the reef edge, it is not surprising that most images at low tide would not capture it since waves are breaking in that area and you might need a sunny day to even see it.
Title: Re: Something odd on Google Earth image
Post by: Andrew M McKenna on June 26, 2012, 08:04:05 AM
The image date is 2/22/2007

I don't think the resolution of this image is good enough to tell. 

Could be coral or something else under the water, could be a fish, could be a bit of sea foam from the breaking waves, could be a white plastic trash bag, or any other kind of flotsam, of which a lot washes up on the beach - logs, dead sharks, lost fishing net floats, barrels, fiberglass, japanese motorcycles, whatever.

It is really easy to assign meaning to shapes that look familiar, but are pretty much random - see the Stills from the ROV video thread.  :-)

Yes, we dove this area in 2001.  If there was something that big other than coral, we would have seen it.

Andrew
Title: Re: Something odd on Google Earth image
Post by: Bruce Thomas on June 26, 2012, 09:01:26 AM
The image date is 2/22/2007

I don't think the resolution of this image is good enough to tell. 

Could be coral or something else under the water, could be a fish, could be a bit of sea foam from the breaking waves, could be a white plastic trash bag, or any other kind of flotsam, of which a lot washes up on the beach - logs, dead sharks, lost fishing net floats, barrels, fiberglass, japanese motorcycles, whatever.

It is really easy to assign meaning to shapes that look familiar, but are pretty much random - see the Stills from the ROV video thread.  :-)

Yes, we dove this area in 2001.  If there was something that big other than coral, we would have seen it.

Andrew

Also, see the Ameliapedia article (http://tighar.org/wiki/Google_Earth) concerning how others have interpreted various shapes in the Google Earth image of Nikumaroro.
Title: Re: Something odd on Google Earth image
Post by: Jeff Victor Hayden on June 26, 2012, 10:49:53 AM
Also take into account that the best resolution that google earth are allowed to show commercially is no higher than 50cm.