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Technology

Google dives beneath the waves

By Frank Pope

4 February 2009

EVER wanted to explore the deep ocean without getting wet? Now you can with Ocean in , 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. Dive beneath it and the oceanic mountain ranges, trenches and abyssal plains are there for all to see.

Google’s usual satellite imaging can’t peer through deep water to map the seabed. Instead, sound is the tool of choice when mapping the ocean floor. Passing sonar arrays over every patch of ocean is beyond…

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