Explore the Oceans with Google Earth

On February 2, 2009, Google invited the world to "take a plunge into the oceans of the world" with Google Earth 5.0. After working with an extensive group of partners, Google incorporated bathymetry, guided tours of areas, ocean observations, recreational sites, biological and environmental data into the new "Oceans" layer. All of this information was encoded into the OGC-approved KML format, and made freely available in the Google Earth interface.

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This screenshot from Google Earth illustrates the type of data now available in the Oceans layer. This presents a unique opportunity to repackage metadata and data in an interoperable format that can be accessed by millions of users literally around the globe. Google Earth partners include the California Academy of Sciences, James Cook University, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Oregon State University, Rutgers University, Ocean Biogeographic Information System, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, Center for Coastal Studies, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. From the Google Earth / Ocean Website

Explore the ocean with Google Earth

We'd like to thank our extensive list of partners for the work and data they've contributed to this endeavor. If you have bathymetric data or sea floor imagery you'd like to contribute, please let us know.