Google Earth Online: explore the world

Cave Rescue in Thailand - Maps and Graphics

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 08:05:00 +0000

Graphics and maps of the cave where 12 boys and their coach got trapped, in Thainland.
The best way to understand how difficult was the rescue mission is by looking at visual representations of the cave system.
This post show some of the drawings, graphics, cross-sections and maps of the flooded cave.

The cave is located at "Tham Luang Forest Park", in the Chiang Rai province, in the north of Thailand. Click the link to explore satellite images and latitude and longitude of the Tham Luang Cave entrance.

Location Maps of the Tham Luang Cave

Satellite Images from Google Earth that show the cave system as seen from above. Some of the images are 3D views that allow us to see the "Doi Nang Non" mountain where the cave is located.

Cave system maps

Maps that show the cave network and rescue route. The Tham Luang cave has a length of 10 km. The boys and their coach were found trapped on a dry mound surrounded by floodwaters at a distance of about 4 km from the main entrance.

Infographics of the Rescue Cave

The following infographics are self explanatory, they allow us to understand the several cross-sections along the length of the cave. The size of the cave is compared to the size of a human being in several points along the cave. Note that the smallest section has only 72 x 38 cm, it's a very narrow passage that is flooded, the only way to overcome it is by scuba diving.

Cross-sections of the mountain and cave

These cross-sections help us to grasp better how deep the cave is from the surface and how the cave develops underground inside the mountain. Some of the images are more realistic in terms of scale than others. The boys were found at a distance of about 4 km from the entrance, close to "Pattaya Beach". Some flooded parts are too narrow to use scuba tanks mounted on the back of a person.

This last picture shows a drawing made by divers depicting several flooded spots where volunteers "will be submerged for a distance of 10 m at each flooded point". They say that fins were not necessary and they could use the rope guideline.

Drawings of the rescue mission process

Drawings that show the rescue process. Each boy is brought out by two divers. The rescued boy is attached to the first diver by a rope and harness who carries the boy's air bottle. The boy wears a full-face mask. In the narrower flooded points they have to squeeze themselves in murky waters. They have to remove air tanks and pull the boy through the gap. These drawings show very well how risky is a rescue operation like this.

In the main page you will find a link to Thailand Cave. You click the link and then the online maps will get you to the cave location where you can explore the area. Click here.

Latitude and longitude finder

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:54:00 +0000

Read Instructions

This is one of the best sites on the Internet to find the latitude and longitude of a place. And you can also do the reverse, you can also find the location of some coordinates by inserting them in editing boxes and having a pointer to tell you where it is on the map.

There are some other tools on the Internet but are not so easy to use. For instance you can find coordinates on Google Maps or on Google Earth but the process is not so simple and usually you only get coordinates in one single format.

Find latitude and longitude coordinates

In this latitude and longitude finder all you have to do is navigate the map and click on any place that you want. A pointer mark that place, and the coordinates are shown just below the map (in three different formats).

Find a place based on any coordinates

Now you have to do the reverse. You provide any latitude and longitude coordinates and the map will show you where it is.

To do that you have to click on the button "Edit coordinates". Insert or edit the coordinates in any format of you preference (each line is a different format). Press the "Go" button and a marker will show you where that place is.

Latitude and longitude in three different formats

Each line shown below the map is one different format of latitude and longitude:

1. decimal degrees ( 0.000000 , 0.000000 )
2. degrees and minutes ( N 00º 00.00000' , W 00º 00.00000' )
3. degrees, minutes and seconds ( N 00º 00' 00.0000” , W 00º 00' 00.0000” )

Each format present different values but all the three formats refers to the same geographical point on the map.

You can use "Map" view or "Satellite" view. In both views the name of the places and roads are indicated.

The use of coordinates is widespread

Coordinates are important for instance for GPS navigation devices. Businesses and organizations publish latitude and longitude of their headquarters on their websites because they want to be found by people in the real world. Leisure spots are shared by people using this coordinates. These are just a few examples, coordinates are being used everywhere by an increasing number of people.

In these situations one might need the coordinates of a point in a specific format and that´s where this tool comes so handy, because you can always choose which latitude longitude format that you need.

Earthquake Map

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:45:00 +0000

The above app is an alternative for the the interactive map named "The Dynamic Planet" that I had initially included in this post. But since it was based on flash, now it can only be accessed by this link now. The text below refers to that flash utility. I hope you understand.

Read Instructions

Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Plate Tectonics and Impact Craters

This is an interesting map I found when I was searching for an earthquake distribution map. Actually, not only you can get an earthquake map to explore locations of earthquakes around the globe, you can also explore the distribution of volcanoes, you can view the plate tectonic boundaries and you can explore the known locations of impact craters.

Interactive Map

1. Legend: At your right side you find a legend that summarize what you can explore in the interactive map. The legend lists all the symbols that you find in the map:

Hide the legend - You can hide it by clicking on the word "Legend". This way you can view a wider map.

2. Zoom tool: At you left side you have the zoom tool that you can use to zoom in or out as you wish. You may have to zoom in to be able to view symbols properly.

3. Opacity: By reducing the opacity you can dilute the background making the events and geologic features more evident, more visible.

4. Layers: This is where you choose what you want to be shown on the map.

For volcanoes you can choose "all", "erupted AD 1900-2004", "erupted AD 0-1899" or "Holocene (10000 years)".
You can limit the impact craters to a certain diameter.
For earthquakes you can specify magnitude and depth among other options.
You can choose to show all plate tectonic boundaries, or select only divergent, transform or convergent, plate motion and plate names.
Notable Events is another option that you can tick to show extraordinary events that occurred in the geologic history of the earth.

Hide the layers menu - You can hide it by clicking on the word "Layers".

5. Additional Information - For Volcanoes and Notable Events you can click one symbol on the map to get additional information for that particular event:

Tectonic Plates

A great feature of this map is that you can explore tectonic plates. Boundaries are defined by lines of different color. Arrows indicate direction of movement of each plate.

Note that the vast majority of the earthquakes and volcanoes occur along tectonic plate boundaries, mainly on collision boundaries. It is so much true that if you disable lines of Plate Tectonics you can still get a picture of how the plates look like just by watching the earthquakes and volcanoes distribution. The silhouettes of Earth's tectonic boundaries will be revealed. Try it yourself. To do it, go to "Layers", uncheck "Plate Tectonics", uncheck "National Boundaries", tick "Volcanoes" and "Earthquakes" checkboxes, and finally reduce "Opacity" to zero. Now zoom out and you should get something like this:

Can you see tectonic plates depicted by all those black, white and red dots?

Ancient maps

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:59:00 +0000

Now you can discover the maps of the past using this utility Old Maps Online.

Search historical maps

Search historical maps across different libraries around the world. You can search by typing the name of a place, or you can do it by double clicking in the map. Then you can narrow the search by date, using a timeline to select an interval of time from the year 1000 to 2010.

The results of your old maps search appear in a sidebar on the right side.

You can choose from the ancient maps listed in the results by clicking on the map of your choice. Then a popup window opens that will allow you to view the old map.

Search by typing the name of place

As you can see in the example below, by typing "Brasil" in the search box, the area of Brasil is selected in the main map by an orange box. In the sidebar we get the old maps results for Brasil from 1825, 1897, etc:

Narrowing the search by time

In the timeline located below the search box we can narrow our search. In the following example the search was narrowed to a time range between 1500 and 1750. Now, in the sidebar, we get different results. The old maps of Brasil are now from 1730, 1747, etc:

The maps in the sidebar are listed by relevance order, with the most relevant at the top.

Search by selecting a window directly on the main map

You can use the tool on the left to select directly on the main map the area of your interest:

After you do that you get the selected area zoomed in and the correspondent old maps results listed in the sidebar:

Zooming in and out

As you zoom in and out on the main map the list of old maps on the sidebar updates instantly. In the example below you can see Rio de Janeiro (the city of the 2016 Olympic Games, and host city of 2014 Fifa World Cup) zoomed in, and the related old maps updated on the sidebar:

When you pass the mouse over the maps on the sidebar list the correspondent area of each map is selected on the main map window.

View the old map

After clicking on an old map in the sidebar, you just have to click the button "View this map" to be able to view that particular map:

View the old maps on the main window

If you tick the checkbox in the right side at the bottom (see image) you can view the location of the old maps on the main window:

I hope you have enjoyed this tip to search quickly and effectively from relevant ancient maps around the world.

Earth from space

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 07:51:00 +0000

This is a different view of our planet, a different perspective of Earth.
In this video you can watch earth from space as did the astronauts aboard International Space Station.

How this video was made

It was made using a technique called time-lapse photography. Time-lapse photography is a technique that consists in taking photos from time to time, and after that the photos are used as frames to produce a video.

What to see

Note the flashes of storms scattered in the surface of the earth and the thin line of the atmosphere around the planet. The Aurora Borealis and Australis are wonderful.

Regions of the earth that appear in the video

Maybe you can recognize yourself any of the places listed bellow, in the same order as they appear in the video:

1. Aurora Borealis over the United States, at night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States, at night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States, at night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea, at night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast, at night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States, at night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia, at night

"The time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a low-light camera by the crew of expeditions 28 29 onboard international Space Station from August to October 2011."
The gateway to astronaut photography of earth - http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov

I hope you enjoyed the Earth from space. Feel free to share it with your friends.

And here is a link if you want to see what hapening there at this right moment. Watch it LIVE.

Virtual tour of Norway

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:39:00 +0000

The Virtual Tour can be seen here.

Read Instructions

This is a tour of Norway.
I had to share this with you. This is a must!

Explore Norway like never before. Use 360º panorama views of great image quality. Look around. Relax. This a virtual tour of Norway that you cannot miss.

There are several places that you can explore, many landscapes of outstanding natural beauty. By default the first aerial photos are from Geirangerfjord, but you can also explore Trollstigen, Trollveggen, Lekna and many other interesting places.

Explore the fjords

A fjord is a valley that has a "U" shape, that was formed by the action of a glacier, and after that was flooded by the ocean. The weight of the ice sliding from the top of the mountains eventually carved the rock below forming those typical U valleys. Note that you can see a lot of beautiful waterfalls along a fjord. As the valley was becoming deeper some smaller valleys were interrupted along the course of the glacier, and were left at a higher level, causing the water to fall from great heights:

You will see fjord cruises full of tourists enjoying their holidays in Norway. It's time for you to enjoy your own fjord tour, visit Norway like you were there.

How to use the 360º panorama views

In each 360 panorama there are icons pointing to other panorama locations. You can click and be redirected to a new spot. This is how the icons look like:

You can also go to a different place by clicking in "View More Places" in the bar below the panorama view:

Then you can watch the different places on the form of thumbnails that you can select:

In the bottom bar at your left you can hit this button to stop the view to rotate:

Tour of Norway - Navigation

You can navigate on a 360º panorama view by using your mouse or by using your keyboard:

You can go up and down, left and right. The photos are of such quality that you can even zoom in for a closer look of a certain area of your interest.

Try it and share your opinion.
Have you enjoyed this tour of Norway?
Leave your comment below.

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:53:00 +0000

Chat room has been removed!

How To Increase Your Twitter Followers

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:04:00 +0000

You can increase your twitter followers. You don't need to be famous to have thousands of followers. Just check the image below and learn in a few steps how you can increase your twitter followers:

Now that you already know how to do it, you can follow us on @GoogleEarthOn , but please don't throw stones against us! ;)

Screen Hunter Free - free screen capture software

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:48:00 +0000

Screen Hunter Free is a freeware that lets you capture screen images (screenshots) of your desktop.

It is very easy to use. You can choose the type of capture - rectangular area, active window or full screen. If, for example, you choose the first option, then simply click the "Capture Now" button, select the portion of the screen that you want and immediately have generated an image that is stored on your desktop or another folder that you define.

Generated images (screenshots) can be saved in GIF, JPG or BMP format. Just choose what format you prefer.

The program can be activated by simply pressing the F6 key (as long as the program is in "standby" with its icon activated on windows taskbar).

Screen Hunter Free can be very useful to easily obtain images to your blog, or to make screenshots of programs, games, etc, for use in tutorials, or to capture aerial views from earth maps to keep them to yourself.

Try Screen Hunter Free now! Enjoy!

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:59:00 +0000

You are now part of this world map:

Who is visiting "GOOGLE EARTH ONLINE" site

noreply@blogger.com (A. D. I.) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:31:00 +0000

Google Earth Online visitors: