Google Earth is an amazing tool. Simply download it onto your PC, then zoom around the planet, getting a bird’s eye view of far-off places. So many people have done just that, in fact, that they’ve found some pretty amazing things.

Luckily for us, they took screen grabs and put them online. Below are 14 amazing images from Google Earth.

Badlands Guardian

This totally natural phenomenon looks like a Native American in full headdress. Found in Alberta, Canada, it has been call the Badlands Guardian by the locals, and it says a lot about modern Canada. Sure, he’s wearing his traditional ceremonial garb, but he also clearly has some iPod ear buds in, so he can rock out to his favourite tunes.

Speedboat peacock

Sometimes Google Earth captures accidental art. In this case, a person cruising in a speedboat unintentionally creates a peacock-shaped wake, and the Google Earth satellite just happened to capture it.

Kiwi in England

At first glance, we just assumed this kiwi etching was in New Zealand. In fact, it has a much more interesting back story than you’d think. In 1919, New Zealand troops were stuck in Wiltshire, waiting for the ships that would take them home. They grew restless, and after a riot, it was decided they should put their energy to some use. Officers had them working long days to create this kiwi image and the NZ, just so they’d have something to do. They must have waited for ages, though: the beak alone is 46 metres long!

Chequered logging

Logging is a necessary activity, and generally, loggers are careful to cut down some trees and leave others behind to continue to grow. Some loggers have taken this approach to a new level, though. Here, loggers clear large squares of woodland, creating this giant chequered pattern.

Iraq bloody lake

This lake caused quite the sensation online when it was first spotted. It’s in Sadr City, in Iraq, and its colour quickly led to speculation. Was it filled with blood? While it’s probably bright red because of sewage, pollution or the waste created during the water-treatment process, there has been no official explanation, so rumours can continue to swirl.

Osmington White Horse

The Osmington White Horse was carved into a limestone hill just north of Weymouth in 1808. It hasn’t stopped people from speculating on its origins, often (wrongly) asserting that it’s from prehistoric times. In fact, it was carved in that hill because the area, South Dorset Downs, was proclaimed ‘the first resort’ by King George III. It’s him on the horse, since he used to ride extensively in the area.

Dallas Google Escher effect

When Google began their Google Earth project, they took high-resolution satellite photographs and photographs taken from airplanes, and essentially pasted them together. That way, users could start from a near-space view of an area, but then zoom down for more detail. The result was often surreal, creating images where buildings leaned at wildly different angles, as this image illustrates. Still, the people at Google have been working hard to correct and prevent these so called Google Escher Effects, so soon all we’ll have is copies of screen grabs from long ago.

Italian bunny

Have you ever gone wandering in the wilderness and found yourself confronted with something truly stupendous? Viennese art group Gelitin wanted to recreate that feeling and give it a surreal twist, so they constructed this gigantic cuddly toy on an Italian mountainside. From the Google Earth image, it’s hard to really see the detail, but the rabbit is 60 metres long and is split on one side. Out of that split spills the bunny’s entrails, giving a macabre twist to the child-like art installation.

Ghengis Khan

He is reputedly an ancestor to 0.5% of the world’s population (or 16 million people), and he slaughtered so many enemies that forests were able to grow quickly and cool the planet a bit. It is safe to say, then, that the world is not in danger of forgetting Genghis Khan any time soon. Still, to honour the man, the people of Mongolia carved his likeness into a hill outside of Ulaanbaatar.

Croatian heart island

The island of Galesnjak, off the coast of Croatia, is shaped like a heart. No one really thought much about it, though, until Google Earth brought it to the wider world’s attention. Now, tourism is starting to boom, as couples travel to the romantically shaped but uninhabited island for holidays.

Welsh fish trap

Google Earth has also revealed many ancient structures to us modern viewers. Case in point is this ancient Welsh fish trap. Once it was spotted on Google Earth, amateurs and academics alike began guessing at its purpose. Eventually, it was discovered to be a fish trap that was over 1000 years old. Fish would swim in, get trapped at low tide, and would attempt to escape through the small opening leading back out to sea. Unfortunately for the fish, Welsh fishermen put nets there, so they’d have some tasty fish for dinner. The trap sank over the centuries, though, until the waters covered it completely, even at low tide. Which is why it took the high-resolution aerial imagery of Google Earth to find it again.

Arizona airplane graveyard

What happens to airplanes when they’re no longer needed or able to fly? In Arizona, they end up in this strangely symmetrical graveyard. The angles and positions of the planes line up nicely, giving the image an oddly pleasing feeling.

Brunel birthday maze

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of Victorian England’s great engineering heroes. He designed the Thames Tunnel, the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, the first Hungerford Bridge in London and Paddington Station. He was also the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. In 2006, the bicentenary of his birth was celebrated with a programme of events collectively called ‘Brunel 200’. This stunning maze was clearly part of the celebration.

Man shaped lake

We wrap up our look at amazing images from Google Earth with this one, a man-made, man-shaped lake in Brazil. For some reason, Brazilians got together and decided to build this man-shaped lake. Still, there’s nothing we can really say about it that is more interesting than the image itself.

 

These amazing images from Google Earth show that no matter how advanced our technology, we are still at the most fundamental levels fascinated by the world around us. That’s probably why we develop and use technology anyway: to understand the world – and our place in it – just a little bit better.

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