In response to heavy speculation that a criss-cross pattern found in Google Earth 5.0 on the ocean bottom off the coast of Africa is the lost city of Atlantis, Google has called in the scientists who created the marks to explain why that’s not the case.
According to the scientist, because the ocean is so deep at the point in question, sound waves have to be used to map the floor. Called echosounding, this is done by measuring the time it takes for sound to get from the ship to the sea floor and back. In this way, the different elevations and gradients of the ocean floor can be approximated. Because this method only maps the sea floor directly under the ship, it produces “ship tracks” which is what you are seeing in the grid pattern.
It’s not a perfect method, but it’s the best available. Likely the surrounding area which is roughly 1 percent higher wasn’t mapped resulting in the error. I’ll let you read the article to get all the details, but it’s official-Atlantis has not entered the building!
