In April 2009, Google added the capability to view the Great Lakes
from beneath the water surface. The Great Lakes Environmental Research
Laboratory (GLERL) has developed a basic narrated Great Lakes tour that
highlights points of interest in each of the five Great Lakes and identifies
a few unique underwater features. The original Great Lakes bathymetric data
were compiled by a NOAA (NESDIS-NGDC and OAR-GLERL) and Canadian Hydrographic
Service team from archival U.S. and Canadian soundings spanning more than
75 years. Dr. David Schwab (GLERL) generated a of lake depths at points on
a grid where the grid spacing is 3 arc seconds (3/60 of a degree, roughly 80 m)
and provided it to Google. The Great Lakes are shallow compared to the oceans,
the Great Lakes bathymetry will not appear as dramatic to the experienced Google
Ocean users. Our intent with this first tour to inspire others to use this tool
to create tours of their own.
There are two ways to view the sample tour.
Use the Google Earth API plug-in below. This method is not optimal for
viewing the details of the points of interest on the tour, but does not require
downloading Google Earth.
- Click on arrow on the control bar on the lower left of the screen
- Pause the tour if you wish to view the video clips mentioned in the narrative
- To return to the tour hit the play button on the control bar on the lower left
of the screen
View the tour in Google Earth. First you will need to
download Google Earth 5.0 Click the link to launch the
tour, in some browsers it will start automatically.
If not, set your browser preferences to “use Google Earth” rather
than download the file.
Launch Google Earth Great Lakes Tour
Download Google Earth*
![Back Great Lakes profiles](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090506035106im_/http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pr/pr_images/arrow_rt.gif)
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