Google Maps wipes out Scottish island of Jura

 The beautiful Scottish island of Jura, where George Orwell wrote 1984,

has sunk without trace into the Atlantic Ocean... at least according to Google.

The map error (probably an inside-out poly issue) was first noticed on July 4,

but two weeks later on Google have yet to rectify the glitch.

(note : presence of A846 road)

but it was still visible in the satellite view.

The GeoGarage's sources in Jura assure us that the island is still standing.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

From DailyMail 
 

• Isle of Jura is located off the west coast of the Scottish Kintyre Peninsula.
• When users search for the isle an outline appears where the land should be
• Google has apologised and is working to fix the fault

Google has had to apologise for accidentally wiping a small Scottish island from its Maps service after the lastest update.

The Isle of Jura should be shown off the west coast of the Scottish Kintyre Peninsula yet when users search for island on Google Maps a red outline appears where the land should be.
Google said it was 'so sorry' for the mistake and added its engineers are 'bevearing away' to fix the flaw.

BBC News was the first site to notice that the mass of land had vanished.
It is visible on Google Earth and on the Satellite view of Google Maps, yet when the page is switched to Maps view, the island disappears.

www.theisleofjura.co.uk

Jura is part of Scotland's Inner Hebrides archipelago and is situated in between Islay and the Kintyre Peninsula off the west coast of the UK country.
It only has around 200 residents that live in an area of approximately 140 square miles.
The island is renowned for its whisky and its deer, which outnumber the people 25 to one.
It is only accessible by a small ferry that stops running at 18.30, small boats from Colonsay to Loch Tarbert or by water taxi.

Jura's single malt scotch whisky distillery, which once employed a quarter of the island's male population, somehow spotted a marketing opportunity in the peculiar situation, promising a free bottle of whisky to the Twitter user who could put an 'X' closest to the distillery's location.
(Google Maps geolocalization)

A Google spokesman told the BBC: 

'We are sorry about that. We're aware of the problem, and our engineers are beavering away to fix it.

We hope to have the map of Jura back to normal as soon as possible.'

Google Maps has suffered similar mishaps before :

• in April 2009, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, two French islands off the coast of Newfoundland, were missing their land data in Google Maps — the roads and landmarks were there, but the outlines of the islands were not (see Google Maps forum)
• in September 2010, the city of Sunrise in Florida vanished from the map while users were redirected to Sarasota (see CNN) 
• in November 2010, Google Nicaraguan map error threatens to escalate into regional dispute (see Guardian / OgleEarth)
• and in 2011, Google Maps placed the harbour in Emden, Germany, under Dutch sovereignty. This border dispute is said to date back to the 15th Century. According to the Dutch, the harbor lies between the northern Netherlands and Germany, but Germans claim the entire estuary as their territory. (see GeoGarage blog)
• Late last year, a group of Australian geologists proved that a South Pacific Island — the mythical “Sandy Island” — does not exist despite appearing on both Google Maps and Google Earth. (see GeoGarage blog)

Large underwater cliff discovered off Queensland Australia

Coral Sea cliff

"It's like a road cutting, when you drive through you can see the layers of the rock, but it's like a giant version of that,"
"We're very keen to go and have a look at it and study it."

Dr Beaman said.

From SydneyUniversity

An underwater cliff recently discovered in the Coral Sea will help shed light on the ancient past, and could also prove to be a hotspot of marine life diversity.

The steep, 800-metre cliff is on the western edge of the Queensland Plateau, to the northeast of Cooktown.

The cliff is located about 130km northeast of Cooktown on Cape York and runs 30km along the Queensland Plateau - a large submarine plateau off the eastern side of the state.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

It was found during a collaborative expedition by German marine scientists and Australian researchers from James Cook University and the University of Sydney.
During June and July, working on one of Germany’s largest research vessels, the RV Sonne, scientists have been mapping the seafloor of the northern Coral Sea – from Papua New Guinea, south along the deep Great Barrier Reef to Townsville, and then east into New Caledonian waters.

“Using a deep-water, multibeam swath echosounder, we were able to detect a steep cliff in an area where we would usually expect to find a gradually sloping seafloor,” said Dr Robin Beaman, from JCU’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
“The top of the undersea cliff lies in about 1800 metres of water and drops nearly vertically into the Queensland Trough at 2600 metres.”

Canyons site east of Cairns

The cliff could record the layers of coral growth that formed on the Queensland Plateau before subsiding to its present depth over the past several million years.

“Elsewhere in the world, such steep cliffs are also the habitats for prolific marine life, so this discovery will be used to plan a future expedition to sample the seafloor,” Dr Beaman said.

The RV Sonne also obtained sediment cores from submarine canyons lying in the deep Great Barrier Reef to the east of Cairns.
These canyons line the edge of northeastern Australia’s continental margin and are known to be the conduits of sediment draining off the reef into the Queensland Trough.

“We targeted one canyon in particular because it was connected to an ancient river channel on the Great Barrier Reef shelf,” said Dr Jody Webster, from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney.
“During times of lower sea-levels, such as during the last ice age about 20,000 years ago, these rivers would have drained at a coastline much further east than now, and likely dumped river sediments directly into connecting canyons.

--> “The sediments recovered from this canyon, and another canyon nearby, will help us to understand the environmental responses of the Great Barrier Reef during changing sea-levels, and the role of submarine canyons in recording those responses,” said Dr Webster.
“Examining sediment cores is much like looking at tree rings to understand the changes to the environment during the life of a tree – they will reveal both the type and timing of sediment deposited from the Great Barrier Reef.
“Analysing these sediments will reveal a great deal about the effects of climate change on the reef,” Dr Webster said.

These new canyon cores and seafloor maps (covering 13,800 square kilometres to date) will contribute to ongoing marine research being conducted on the deep Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea by JCU and the University of Sydney.

“The data from this collaborative expedition are timely, given the area’s recent inclusion in the Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve,” Dr Beaman said.
“It shows there is still much to discover about the deep environments of the Coral Sea.”

Links :

• Sydney Univ : Underwater landslides discovered off the Great Barrier Reef

Decision due on massive Antarctic marine sanctuaries

The proposal, backed by the European Union, covers seven coastal zones in East Antarctica.

• CCAMLR has established just one Marine Protected Area in the Antarctic so far.
• They have designated 11 priority areas in the Southern Ocean from which most MPAs will be created.
• Governments have set a goal of extending protected areas to ten percent of the world's oceans

From BBC

Negotiators meeting in Germany are set to decide on the establishment of the world's biggest marine reserves in Antarctica.

Scientists are hoping the plans for protected areas in the Ross Sea and in Eastern Antarctica will be supported.
But a previous attempt failed to get the necessary backing of all 25 members involved.
And there are worries that countries including Russia could again scupper the proposal.

 The plan is aimed to strike a balance between conservation and sustainable fishing.

Picture: John B. Weller

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is made up of countries with an interest in the Southern Ocean, and includes Australia, the US, the UK, China and Russia among its members.
Any decisions taken require consensus among all parties.

 >>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

This meeting in Bremerhaven has been called to deal specifically with proposals for the establishment of reserves that would ban fishing and protect species including seals and penguins.
If successful the plans would more than double the area of the world's oceans that are protected.

Protecting penguins

The idea of creating marine protected areas has been around for several years - but when it came to a decision late last October, several countries including Russia, the Ukraine and China had reservations and the meeting ran out of time.

 Map of the New Zealand-United States proposal

The US and New Zealand are again backing a proposal to create a marine protected zone in the Ross Sea with a total area of 2.3m sq km, making it the biggest in the world.

 >>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

According to Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts' Southern Ocean campaign, this would have a major benefits for a range of species.
"While it is called the Ross Sea, a portion of it is frozen solid 365 a year and provides a critical habitat for hundreds of species of birds, mammals, fish and invertebrates including 38% of the world's Adelie penguins and 26% of the world's Emperor penguins," she said.
Another proposal from Australia, France and the European Union would create protected areas in East Antarctica covering around 1.63m sq km

Australia and France have developed a plan to protect 1.9 million square kilometres of East Antarctica as new marine parks.

Picture: John B. Weller

Australia's minister for environment, Mark Butler MP, said the East Antarctic proposal would be a significant undertaking but would be about more than just protecting species.
"The MPA also includes scientific reference areas where we can measure long term changes and natural variability - essential pieces of information to ensure the conservation of key features and the sustainability of fishing in the region," he said.

Fishing is a big sticking point with species like krill and patagonian toothfish proving highly lucrative for boats from a range of countries, including South Korea, Norway and Japan.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was established by international convention in 1982 with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life.

This was in response to increasing commercial interest in Antarctic krill resources, a keystone component of the Antarctic ecosystem. CCAMLR is an international commission with 25 Members, and a further 10 countries have acceded to the Convention.

Based on the best available scientific information, the Commission agrees a set of conservation measures that determine the use of marine living resources in the Antarctic.

In for the krill

The tiny shrimp like Antarctic krill are a key element of the ecosystem, as they are part of the diet of whales, penguins, seals and sea birds.
However demand for krill has risen sharply in recent years thanks to growing interest in Omega-3 dietary supplements.

In the months since the last meeting in Tasmania, diplomats have been working hard to stress the scientific case for ending fishing in these regions of Antarctica.
"There were a number of issues raised by countries including China, Russia and the Ukraine, they related to issues such as access to fishing and there were questions about the science," Bob Zuur, from campaigners WWF.
"The proponents have heard those concerns and have prepared detailed responses - we expect that those issues have now been addressed."
Environmentalists are worried that there may be attempts at a compromise, with a proposal from Norway for what's termed a "sunset clause".

 The "Giant Tabular Iceberg" floats in Antarctica's Ross Sea in December 2011.

Supported by Russia and Japan it would mean the protected areas in the East Antarctic would be reviewed in 2064 and the Ross Sea in 2043.
Campaigners say that this is an unusual idea, given that protected areas on land or in the seas are usually designated in perpetuity.

If the meeting doesn't come to a decision or it is likely that unanimity can't be achieved, it is possible that the meeting will refer the issue forward to CCAMLR's annual gathering towards the end of this year.

Links :

• TheGuardian : Antarctic marine reserves plan 'threatened by Russian fishing interests'

Norway mulls broadband Internet coverage in Arctic as maritime activity grows

In this July 21, 2011 file photo, an iceberg floats in the sea near Qeqertarsuaq, Disko Island, Greenland.

Norway is looking into providing high-speed Internet in one of the few places on Earth where it’s not available: the Arctic.

Demand for high-speed Internet in the Arctic is expected to grow as shipping, fishing and oil companies move north amid warming temperatures and melting ice.

Brennan Linsley, File/Associated Press

From WashingtonPost

Norway may provide high-speed Internet in one of the few places on Earth where it’s not available: the Arctic.
The Norwegian Space Center has teamed up with Telenor Satellite Broadcasting to assess the feasibility of a new satellite system covering northern areas outside the reach of current geostationary communications satellites.
Space center director Bo Andersen on Thursday told The Associated Press the system could be in place in the early 2020s if it gets the necessary funding from private and public sources.
The estimated cost is 2 billion-4 billion kroner ($330 million-$650 million).

Demand for high-speed Internet in the Arctic is expected to grow as shipping, fishing and oil companies move north amid warming temperatures and melting ice.
Last year, summer sea ice cover in the Arctic fell to the lowest extent on record.

 Arctic sea ice dwindled to its lowest levels on record in 2012

Geostationary satellites, which are in orbit over the equator, provide coverage up to 75 degrees north, Andersen said.
But above that latitude, the signals become too weak, and the only option is another satellite network that can only handle voice and limited data service.
“We see very clearly that there is an increasing need for broadband in the high Arctic,” Andersen said.

Ola Anders Skauby, a spokesman for Norwegian energy company Statoil, said “new satellite solutions would be beneficial” as the offshore industry moves north in search of oil and gas.
“Our plans for the Arctic depend on a number of issues: safe operations, logistics, weather conditions and more,” he said.
“Broadband coverage is part of this picture and for operations in some regions further north than where current operations are taking place development of new solutions for high-capacity broadband ... will be needed.”

Canada’s space agency has been studying a similar system.
Spokeswoman Melanie Beauchesne said the agency has completed feasibility studies but is still talking with potential public and private partners in Canada and abroad “to determine their level of interest and potential collaboration scenario to bring about the future realization of this mission.”

Dream from 'The Glide'

Dream from 'The Glide'. Images by Jon Frank. Music by Richard Tognetti. from Jon Frank