11 Fascinating Things Captured by Google Earth
Updated: Oct. 04, 2018You won’t believe some of some of these things actually exist on Earth.
Breathtaking Blues
These beautiful blue ponds can be seen at the Intrepid Potash mine near Moab, Utah. They are potassium chloride evaporation ponds. “Potash” means salts that contain potassium. Blue dye is added to the water to make its colour so strong. The bright blue in contrast with the red desert helps to optimize the absorption of sunlight and evaporation. As the water evaporates from the pond, crystals of salt and potassium are left behind and then gathered for the production of the chemical.
The Grand Prismatic Spring
The stunning pool of water is located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It’s the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world. The colours are caused by the mixture of hot water, algae, and bacteria.
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Lake Inception
Taal Lake on the island of Luzon in the Philippines has a lake inside an island inside a lake on an island. Pretty crazy, right?
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Desert Breath
This spiral pattern in the desert of Egypt is actually handmade. It was an art installation built using 178 cones that form a spiral pattern in the sand. It was finished in 1997 and takes up a total of 25 acres.
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The World Islands
This group of islands built in Dubai is supposed to be a rough representation of the seven continents. If you tilt your head to the left you can kind of see it. The project, conceived by the ruler of Dubai at the time, is made up of 300 islands and sits about four kilometres off the coast.
Colourful Lakes
These colourful lakes are located in the Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve of Andean Fauna in Bolivia. They are on a high plateau called the Andean Altiplano that has volcanoes, hot springs, colourful lakes, and other unique rock formations. The yellow lake that can be seen at the top left corner of the image is called Laguna Colorada. The lake contains white borax islands that contrast with the reddish colour of its water, which is caused by red sediments and pigmentation of algae. Lake Colorada is known for being home to many flamingos.
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Airplane Cemetery
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona also serves as a retirement home for airplanes that are no longer used. Since new technology is always being created, airplanes have a pretty short life and need to be stored somewhere when they are no longer being used. A few of these airplane graveyards were created after World War II because the military had a surplus of aircraft, but Davis-Monthan is the largest.
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Signal to Space
This unique pattern is found on the desert floor near Mesa Huerfanita, New Mexico. Some claim that the site is a hidden bunker belonging to the Church of Scientology, which you can see nearby. According to the Daily Mail, the symbols on the ground are there to guide Scientologists back to earth after escaping because of an “Armageddon”-like incident.
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Long Racetrack
This giant ring is actually a racetrack. This 19-kilometre circle, located in Italy, is known as the Nardò Ring. The track has four different lanes that are banked to such a degree that a driver doesn’t have to turn their wheel if they maintain a certain speed. They can drive as if the track were a straight line while still making it all the way around.
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Giant Stick Figure
This geoglyph, know as the Atacama Giant, is located on a hillside in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It measures a total of 390 feet and was originally built as an astronomical calendar. The spot where the moon would align with the giant would determine the when the crop cycle would start and end.
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Largest Pool
This light blue body of water isn’t a pond or lake, it’s actually the world’s largest swimming pool, located at the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Algarrobo, Chile. It is a jaw-dropping 3,324 feet in length and holds 66 million gallons of water. This pool is so big that there’s a dock located in it and people can take their sailboats out in it on a breezy day.
