Cyber Sleuths Comb Maps for Mysteries

The Los Angeles Times recently did a story on the "office-chair detectives" that scour Google Earth looking for the unknown. These cyber-detectives have made of hobby out of discovering unusual sites captured by the satellite's eye. Among there finds are airplanes in flight (among the most competitive pursuits), surfers off Malibu, mourners congregating in a Chicago cemetery, a Boston Red Sox game underway at Fenway Park, a cement truck overturned in San Francisco.

The article focuses on the efforts of a German physics student to identify a small line of smoke off the coast off the coast of Iceland. After a lot of detective work by members of the Google Earth Community Bulletin Board, it was discovered that the smoke was indeed an ship on fire and that the one-man crew was rescued.

The Times' article can be found here, and includes some links to some of the more interesting finds.