In an effort to stamp out the sudden furore thrown up by recent claims suggesting Google Earth has uncovered the mythical Lost City of Atlantis, online search giant Google has said the apparent ruins on the ocean floor are nothing more than data tracks left by sonar boats collecting information off the African continent’s Atlantic coast.
Google says underwater ruins are actually sonar tracks. Image: Google.
Rumours of the possible find began circulating late last week when Google Earth observers fortuitously focused in on a Google Ocean image showing what appeared to be a series of underwater streets and walls in a uniformed grid system around 960 kilometres (600 miles) off the coast of Morocco.
However, despite Atlantis experts and searchers hoping for something tangible, Google has said users are actually seeing “an artefact of the data collection process.”
“Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor,” explained Google in a statement. “The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data.”
“The fact there are blank spots between each of these lines is a sign of how little we really know about the world’s oceans,” the search expert added.
First described by Greek philosopher Plato as a place of great wealth populated by an advanced civilisation that was destroyed by earthquakes around 11,000 years ago, beliefs regarding the true geography of Atlantis see it placed plum in the middle of the Atlantic, close to the Caribbean island of Cuba, and even somewhere near British overseas territory Gibraltar.
Adding to the argument against Google inadvertently uncovering Atlantis, Plato’s original writings regarding the city described it as being laid out through a series of concentric circles as opposed to the rectangular grid and external perimeter clearly depicted in the ocean snapshot.
The Google Earth image in question can be viewed more closely at the following coordinates: 31 15’15.53N 24 15’30.53 W.
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