Google Street View goes to the Galápagos!

If you don’t live in, say, Ulan Bator, you’re certainly familiar with Google Street View, which aims to cover the world’s streets, trails, and interesting locations with special cameras mounted on cars, snowmobiles, and even human beings. (You can see a gallery of some of their nicest places here. Be sure to see the “world’s highest peaks” page  and especially the view of Everest from the adjacent peak of Kala Patthar, where I’ve stood twice and consider one of the three most beautiful views in the world (the other two are Macchu Piccu from above and Everest and Ama Dablam from the Thyanboche Monastery).

Wikipedia has a nice article on the process of photographing the world; here are two excerpts:

Google Street View displays panoramas of stitched images taken from a fleet of specially adapted cars. Areas not accessible by car, like pedestrian areas, narrow streets, alleys and ski resorts, are sometimes covered by Google Trikes (tricycles)  or snowmobiles.On each of these vehicles there are nine directional cameras for 360° views at a height of about 8.2 feet, or 2.5 meters, GPS units for positioning and three laser range scanners from Sick AG for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle.These are used for recording a rough 3D model of the surroundings, enabling faux-3D transitions between distinct panoramas where the environment images are momentarily mapped onto this 3D model while being crossfaded to create an animated perspective change as the user travels from one panorama to another. There are also 3G/GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots. More recently, high quality images have been based on open source hardware cameras from Elphel.

. . .Google Street View was introduced in the United States on May 25, 2007, and only covered areas of the United States until July 2, 2008. Images can now be seen in 48 countries, dependencies, and autonomous regions (although parts of other countries and dependencies can be seen from locations located near national borders; for example, large portions of Vatican City can be viewed from Rome’s street view). Introductions have generally occurred every 2 days to 100 days. Until November 26, 2008, major cities (and early on, the only cities) were marked by camera icons, more of which were added each time. Then, all camera icons were discontinued in favor simply of “blue” coverage, while other features have been added to make access to and use of the feature more user-friendly.

On June 6, 2012, Google announced that it has captured 20 petabytes of data for Street View, comprising photos taken along 5 million miles of roads, covering 39 countries and about 3,000 cities.

Here’s the coverage so far, which is a bit inaccurate because Nepal (home of Mt. Everest) is listed as having “no current or planned coverage.”

But enough of that. The good neews is that Google Street View is doing the Galápagos Islands, so those of you who haven’t been can still get a virtual visit. An article by Rebecca Rosen that appeared last Thursday on The Atlantic‘s website notes that a week from yesterday the Google team returned to California after ten days on the islands, having photographed not only the terrestrial habitat and its creatures, but also the surrounding waters. This has a purpose beyond visual tourism: the photos can document changes on the island, monitoring the health of this fragile ecosystem.

Here are a few photos (and some information) from the Atlantic article.  The Google folks (with the help of the Charles Darwin foundation) walk the islands with back-mounted cameras:

The team documented sites on both land and sea, capturing sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and, hopefully, some of those fabled finches too. “Because the animals aren’t afraid of humans,” Raleigh Seamster of Google told me. “The person wearing the Street View Trekker was able to walk just within meters of these really amazing looking birds in their natural habitat. One of the things I’m really excited about is the hope that, in that imagery, Google Maps users will actually be able to zoom in on the blue webbed feet of the blue-footed boobies and really get up close to the unique wildlife.”

Here’s some underwater surveying:

At Sierra Negra, an active volcano on Isabela Island, the team found itself in an area known as Minas de Azufre, aka the Sulfur Mines. To get there, the team had to take a van, a two-hour horseback ride, and then hike down side of the crater (with the clunky Street View backpacks). “Picture this: It’s almost like a moonscape. You’ve walked though prehistoric looking ferns, through this crater, and then you get to this moonscape area, where sulfur is just steaming out of the ground, and everything is dyed canary yellow from the sulfur, and it’s just this incredible place and you just feel like you’re at the end of the Earth.”

I was on the islands a while back, but I never got to see this amazing place:

I have to say that when I went to the Galápagos as a lecturer on a Lindblad cruise, I didn’t expect that much. Having read about them so much as part of my job, I thought I already knew what I’d find.  But reading and imagining don’t come near the reality of these stunning islands: their barrenness that nevertheless tee,s with life, the eerie, lava-tinted landscapes, the tameness of the animals (baby sea lions will waddle up to you and nuzzle your feet, you can snorkel with penguins, sea turtles, and flightless cormorants, and the birds simply sit there calmly a few meters from you).  It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both the jaded biologist and the nature buff.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Google will make the Galápagos images available online later this year, but they haven’t set a firm date.

h/t: Michael