The discoveries made with Google Earth (5 photos) Bashny.Net

With the help of satellites, the scientists had the opportunity to explore the area, where no one had not occurred to send scientific expeditions.
And thanks to Google Earth made a number of important discoveries, which we will tell you about today.

The remains of an ancient Roman villa, 2005
One of the earliest archaeological discoveries made in Google Earth, held in 2005. Ironically, the author of the discovery, a local resident Luca Mori has launched a program to explore the area near their home in Parma. Quite unexpectedly, he noticed a strange artifact in an oval fields near the town.



One of the earliest archaeological discoveries made in Google Earth, held in 2005. Ironically, the author of the discovery, a local resident Luca Mori (Luca Mori) has launched a program to explore the area near their home in Parma. Quite unexpectedly, he noticed a strange artifact in an oval field near the city.

Luca Mori took his computer glitch, but still informed the specialists of the National Archaeological Museum, which organized the expedition. Immediately after the excavation, they found the remains of ancient ceramics and Roman villa dating to AD.

Australopithecus sediba age 2 million years, South Africa 2008


Bold paleoanthropologist Lee Berger went to the courageous study of South Africa, running Google Earth in the comfort of his office. The professor began to explore the region of limestone caves in South Africa, which is known to scientists as the Cradle of Humankind.

Berger found on satellite images previously unknown cave suitable for the life of ancient people. In 2008, he organized an expedition polulyubitelsky, taking with him only one student, and son and dog. At the site, they found fifty prospective residences Australopithecus (the great apes, hominids dvunogohodyaschie with a small volume of the brain).

I visit one of the caves, his father sent a 9-year-old son to look around, and after 15 minutes he brought the stone with beautifully preserved fossilized fragments of the lower jaw and collarbone. Excavations at the site have revealed fragments of skeletons and other women and adolescents, whose age is estimated at 1, 78-1, 95 million years.

The importance of this discovery is that the found samples belong to a new, previously unknown species of Australopithecus, very similar to humans. That's two million years ago, the great apes began to walk on two legs, to use tools, and form the beginnings of speech. The new species was named Australopithecus sediba (Australopithecus sediba). Perhaps it is this kind of an ancestor of Homo habilis, ie the transition from ape-like hominids link to the people of the modern type.

Tropical forest on the mountain Mabou, Mozambique 2008


On satellite images of northern Mozambique, the British scientist Julian Bailey (Julian Bayliss) found a completely unknown "oasis" - an isolated tropical forest, located high in the mountains in a remote place. It turned out that this forest is known to locals, but there has never fitted out a scientific expedition. But these isolated areas of exceptional interest to biologists because often there are new species of animals and plants. Mabou Mountain did not disappoint - in 2008 sent an expedition to the results of which are still studying. In total, it was discovered more than a hundred (!) New species - plants, birds, butterflies, monkeys, snakes - in just three weeks. This tropical forest experts called jokingly called Google Forest.

Stone artifacts, Saudi Arabia, 2011


As the wilds of Mozambique, the deserts of Saudi Arabia very unfriendly to researchers and travelers. In early 2011, Australian scientist David Kennedy (David Kennedy) has decided that it will be easier at first to explore the area on satellite images than to look for something in the sand. The study of the desert meter by meter bore fruit - was discovered more than 2000 seats, which is something visible. These coordinates are entered on the list, and the study should help detect thousands of different artifacts of ancient civilization - stone wheels, traps for birds, strangely shaped tombs and more. Artifacts, scattered over a vast territory from Syria to Yemen, are more than 9,000 years.

Ancient pyramids, Peru 2008


In 2008, scientists were able to detect a large number of ancient pyramids under a layer of soil in the desert of Peru, combining Google Earth with pictures infrared shooting.

Pyramids were found under a field of wheat, a kilometer from the famous Nazca Lines - a group of giant geometric shapes, each the size of a hundred meters (triangles, spirals, a bird, a monkey, a spider, flowers). These geoglyphs noticed only in the 20th century, when the plane flew over them. By virtue of gigantic figures impossible to see from the ground.