7 Amazing and Cool Places To Explore on Google Earth

The view from far above grants us an entirely different outlook on the Earth's features. Google Earth offers a safe peek at the sites of mysterious disappearances, nuclear disasters, unapproachable or distant locations, secret government bases, diamond mines, and even the outlines of the past crater strikes.

The unique perspective offered by the satellite imaging has inspired artists (and, possibly, aliens) to create new landmarks that could never be appreciated from any other angle.

Desert Breath Pattern Art

Located in a desolate Egyptian desert, not far from the shores of the Red Sea, this 1 million square foot spiral design is, in fact, an art project called Desert Breath. In March 2007, Danae Stratou, Alexandra Stratou, and Stella Constantinides created this artwork meant to celebrate the desert landscape. Since the first pictures you can find on their site, the grand art has significantly eroded and no longer looks quite as prominent.

# The Badlands Guardian

The Badlands Guardian is a geomorphological feature situated in the southeast corner of Alberta, Canada. Viewed from the air, it resembles a westward-facing human head wearing a full Indigenous headdress. This area has been traditionally the home of the Siska First Nation, also known as the Blackfoot tribes. The location of the geological feature is very remote and not readily accessible: the Badlands is a deserted and often unfriendly terrain of ravines, hills, and sinkholes. The Earth folds shaping the contour of a giant were formed by the end of the last Ice Age when melting glaciers dissolved clays and light sedimentary soils. These landscapes keep changing even these days, being carved and eroded under the pressure of the wind and heavy rains, forming unique geomorphic features and intriguing topographies.

# Airplane Boneyard

The Davis Monthan Air Force Base is where US military planes go to retire. Named the boneyard, this 4 square mile cemetery of skyborne steel is not accessible for the general public. Still, Google Earth provides a convenient curiosity tour: practically every plane the military has used since World War II, from the B-52 Stratofortress to the F-14 Tomcat. The airplanes from different times have various degrees of decay. Did you know that a retired airplane can make for an innovative and extravagant house? There have been several architectural projects repurposing elements or even entire retired planes as homes.

# Guitar-Shaped Forest

This 2/3 mile long guitar forest was nurtured in the fertile agricultural region of Argentina's pampas. At this size and on the backdrop of plain cultured fields, the guitar-shaped forest is noticeable from both planes and satellites. The guitar forest is a creation of a local farmer Pedro Martin Ureta and his four kids: that planted every tree by hand decades ago. The guitar-shaped forest was intended as a memorial for Pedro's wife, Graciela Yraizoz, who died of an aneurism in 1977. A couple of years later, Pedro remembered his wife's idea to shape the farm after her favorite instrument and decided to honor her memory. With the help of their children, he planted and nurtured roughly 7,000 cypress and eucalyptus trees.

# Networked Oil Fields

Not much to be said: it is an oil field being actively developed by YPF. But quite a beautiful sight from above, looking like an elaborate network of nodes and lines

# The White Lion

Coined by some as a Lion King, this geoglyph, known initially as Whipsnade White Lion, was built in 1933 for an unusual reason. The colossal feline was dug into a chalk hill within the Dunstable downs near the Whipsnade Zoo. Initially, only the outline of the lion could be seen, but it was eventually completed to become the largest geoglyph in the country. The Zoological Society of London conceived the lion project as a landmark to warn passing pilots not to fly low over the zoo to avoid scaring animals. The second purpose of the zoo carving was, of course, advertising for the zoo. Over the years, the lion deteriorated and became overgrown; luckily, in March of 2018, a neighbor donated 50 truckloads of chalk so the zoo could make the lion shine white again.

# Electric Blue Potash Mine Bonds

These ponds are maintained to extract potassium chloride, also known as potash, from the desert landscapes of Utah. Potash is mainly required in the production of potent fertilizers. Most potash forms in areas when inland seas or lakes dry out: as their waters evaporated, they left behind potassium salt deposits. Why does the water have such an unusually vibrant color? The water is dyed bright blue purposely to help it absorb more sunlight and heat and decrease the time it takes for the water to evaporate. As it happens, potash and other salts crystallize out. The evaporation process takes approximately 300 days. At the different stages of evaporation, the ponds can take different colors. Most of the new ponds are a bright electric blue. As time passes, ponds display different stages of evaporation as an array of colors, from various hues of blue and turquoise to orange, yellow, and white.