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Google Debunks Maps Atlantis Myth
prxi writes "Recently speculation spread that Atlantis may have been located on Google Ocean. Now Google has posted a blog entry, written by two oceanographers, explaining what exactly caused the strange markings off the coast of Africa. The authors also note that we have better maps of the surface of Mars than we do of our own oceans, and go into detail on what would be required to obtain a fine-grained map of the ocean floor. Apparently it's only 200 ship years of work, or around the cost of a modern stadium, give or take."
From FTA:
That is the most interesting thing I have read through Slashdot in a really long while.
Start Google Earth, go to the ocean west of the Ireland, and you will see even larger "Atlantis".
No sig today.
I doubt we'll ever have (publicly available) highly detailed ocean maps like we have of Mars. The reason: there are no nuclear submarines on the surface of Mars.
I noticed that same area when the day this story broke. What was so interesting that someone bothered to go searching?
I also wonder about these mini-seamounts off the coast of Nags Head - are they wrecks, or actual features?
Also, what's with the blurring here? It's probably where data was stitched, but it might be intentional blurring of the wreck of the Monitor. I like a good conspiracy theory.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Prices would head towards infinity and beyond faster than the US gov could print money to pay with.
On the positive side, you would need a lot of additional people. You would need quality positioning data for places which do not have it today (basically, differential GPS reference stations) and you would need satcom to collect the data in real time so the ships did not need to stop surveying to offload data and did not get too far away from the survey area before the data had been through proper quality control.
That is, you also need staff to work around the clock processing the massive amounts of data you would get.
You will also need equipment specialized for shallow waters where ships normally cannot go without high risk (corals reefs for instance). Probably smaller boats that can be operated from a larger mother ship or helicopters.
The article simplifies this a lot. The real cost of mapping the entire ocean floor without gaps would most certainly be much higher than 2 billion usd.
Not to mention that many countries would never let a foreign power go into their territorial waters and do detailed charting of the seafloor. Both for military reasons and because things like exact positions of wrecks are often classified because they do not want crazy divers all over the place looting.
On the other side... I am willing to bet that both US Navy and Russian Navy are sitting on a bunch of highly classified charts of significant chunks of the ocean floor for use on their subs.
If there was an actual place and society that inspired the fictional tale of morals and corruption spun by Plato, it was most likely the Minoan civlization on Santorini and Crete from around 1600 BC. It was an advanced (for the time) civilization wiped out (or at least dispersed forever) by the cataclismic eruption of the caldera that formed the ring structured island. This link has oner of the better discussions of the issue without all the hyperbol and passion that many 'seekers' often display.
http://www.decadevolcano.net/santorini/atlantis.htm
Keep passing the open windows...