‘Found’ lost city of Atlantis is lost again on Google Earth
An enigmatic submerged grid of geometric features on the seabed off the coast of North Africa, prominently visible on a Google Earth map, has had its ‘Atlantis’ tag removed in the latest software update.
Armchair Indiana Jones fans had theorised that the bizarre formations represented sunken streets. Oceanographers demurred however, pointing out that the lines were merely artefacts left by the ‘bounce’ of sonar waves off the ocean floor.
Sceptics were further bolstered after it emerged that lines stretched for over 100 miles, making ‘Atlantis’ a metropolis as large as present day Tokyo.
In a statement geophysicist David Sandwell said: “The original version of Google Ocean was a newly developed prototype map that had high resolution but also contained thousands of blunders related to the original archived ship data. The Google map now matches the map used in the research community, which makes the Google Earth program much more useful as a tool for planning cruises to uncharted areas.”