This stuff is great so far. I love google Earth! With the new oceans stuff you can see the ancient riverbeds formed millions of years ago before man existed now under hundreds and thousands of feet of water. You can see the drag marks off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts from ancient ice bergs. You can see the deep holes that many say were formed by HUGE iceberges that took hundred or thousands of years to melt as sea level rise covered millions of acres of once fertile dry land. Soon the will be adding shipwrecks and more to heir digital globe! It is worth seeing!

Menderman

Story below;




Updated 12:36 PM EST, Tue, Feb 3, 2009

More than 500 million people have downloaded Google Earth since it was launched in 2005. The software is available for free on Google's Web site. Researchers and organizations can purchase a more powerful version for $400.


Google Says Take the Plunge

John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps, said the idea of adding oceans came three years ago when a scientist pointed out that the software was missing the water that covers almost three-quarters of the Earth's surface.

Google Earth users can now plunge beneath the ocean's surface, explore three-dimensional images of the underwater terrain and view articles and videos about marine science contributed by scientists and organizations around the world.

National Geographic gives a nice sneak preview of the application here.

The Historical Imagery feature lets users see archive satellite images of individual locations to see how the region has evolved over time as a result of climate change and other forces. For example, viewers can observe how the largest glacier in Glacier National Park has melted over the past decade.

With Google Mars 3D, users can view three-dimensional, satellite imagery of the Red Planet taken during NASA space expeditions.

The new version also allows users to created narrated tours of places using the software's content and images.

"It's not just a fun demo," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "What it really is a platform for science and research and literally understanding the future of the world."