Google has teamed up with oceanographers at Columbia University to add more ocean seafloor to Google Earth than has ever been available before. Users of Google Earth just need to click the surface of any ocean to “dive” underwater and explore trenches, sea mountains and underwater volcanoes in high resolution.

Now you can with Ocean in Google Earth, the new addition to the company’s virtual Earth model. The tool will allow users to fly beyond the beach and, in place of the flat seabed image of previous versions, see a shimmering, semi-transparent sea.

Oceanographers use sonar—sound waves—to map the ocean bottom. These sonar readings are typically taken by ships towing submersible devices that send out sound waves. The sound travels through the ocean, bounces off the seafloor, then travels back to the ships.

Dive below the ocean’s surface to explore underwater canyons, or travel to the ocean’s deepest point, the Mariana Trench. Once underwater, simply swipe the screen with two fingers to “look around.” You can always reset your view by clicking on the north arrow on the iPad, or on the compass on the iPhone and iPod.

Google Earth has added underwater exploration, allowing users to see what it’s like to swim with sharks. Shark View can be viewed on Google Earth’s Voyager section through the Google Chrome web browser or Android app.

Masses on the sea floor deform the seas surface and those bumps and hollows can be mapped. Google Earth shows the seafloor topography. That rough looking surface is quite real. It is based on sonar reflection bathymetry, with lots and lots of cable sonde measurements of depth as control points.

One system type is able to reach 1 to 1.5 times Secchi depth and the other 2.5 to 3 times Secchi depth. At ideal viewing conditions the sea/river bed can be detected down to around 10m depth.

The oceans have no apparent surface features — just a flat, vast, briny expanse. They’re also all connected; the world’s five oceans are technically one single ocean that covers 71 percent of the planet [source: NOAA]. This makes it difficult to divide, and so ultimately, you own the oceans.

Features of the ocean include the continental shelf, slope, and rise. The ocean floor is called the abyssal plain. Below the ocean floor, there are a few small deeper areas called ocean trenches. Features rising up from the ocean floor include seamounts, volcanic islands and the mid-oceanic ridges and rises.

Islands are not floating at all. They are actually mountains or volcanos that are mostly underwater. Their bases are connected to the sea floor. If an island does disappear under the ocean, it’s because the land underneath has moved or the bottom of the volcano has broken apart.

Originally Answered: Can u swim under an island? Islands are the tops of mountains under the sea, so if you dive down to the sea floor you will find out that they are attached to the ground. So you cannot swim underneath them.

There’s only one place in the world where you can swim in the tectonic plates between 2 continents. The Silfra fissure in Iceland is the crack between North America and Europe. It is the only place in the world where you can swim between two tectonic plates.

According to Britannica, an island is a mass of land that is both “entirely surrounded by water” and also “smaller than a continent.” By that definition, Australia can’t be an island because it’s already a continent. Unfortunately, there isn’t a strict scientific definition of a continent.

What makes Australia such a hostile country? The Sun – Australia lies under a hole in the ozone layer, and ultraviolet rays burn the skin like nothing else. That’s why Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. Snakes – 21 of the 25 venomous snake species live in Australia.

United States is about 1.3 times bigger than Australia. Australia is approximately 7,741,220 sq km, while United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km, making United States 27% larger than Australia. Meanwhile, the population of Australia is ~25.5 million people (307.2 million more people live in United States).

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