Earlier this month, Google Earth sparked a number of conspiracy theorists into action when their latest update removed a grid like pattern from the sea bed just off the coast of Morocco. When first discovered in 2009 it unsurprisingly ignited rumours that the underwater city of Atlantis had been found.
Google’s official response to the discovery described it as a misrepresentation caused by overlapping datasets, and Atlantis had not been found; but the map remained - until now.
"[W]hat users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process," a Google spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. "Bathymetric (or sea-floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data. The fact that there are blank spots between each of these lines is a sign of how little we really know about the world's oceans."
The sea floor as mapped under Google’s original mapping programme in 2009.
The sea floor as mapped under Google’s current mapping programme released Feb 2012.
Is this a cover up to prevent scores of greedy treasure hunters digging up the sea bed or is there something more to it than that? Of course we cannot ignore the official position and in reality maybe this grid like effect was just a data glitch. That said, if you look closely, and although the area has been darkened, parts of the grid are still visible. Are Google programmers being a little mischievous and deliberately leaving just enough of the 'grid' visible to entice all the "See! I can still see it! What are they hiding??" posters into a conspiracy frenzy or is their new imaging equipment still picking up on the anomaly. Surely if Google had really wanted to erase the feature, they simply would have done so.
Is there something hidden under the sands of the coast of Morocco? I guess only time will tell…
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