Where on Google Earth #270

For several months now I didn't get round to try solving WoGE puzzles (For a description what this is, see below the fold. Previous WoGEs are collected on Felix Bossert's blog and in Ron Schott's KML.) or was just too slow to find the current page on the web (and the location, of course). Now I'm back on track, hopefully.

Ole tried to slow down the rapid succession of WoGEs by zooming in a lot more than most previous posters with his WoGE #268. This seemed a success, at least people were desperately searching the planet for quite some time.

Felix Bossert liked this approach and presented another close-up view (WoGE #269), which I managed to solve rather quickly. This was by sheer luck: I had the Donauversinkung already prepared to be my next WoGE. 😉

Therefore, I needed a new location, and I've found something similar:

Where on Google Earth #270.

Where on Google Earth #270.

For any new players to Where on (Google) Earth, simply post a comment with latitude and longitude and write something about the (geologic) features in the picture. If you win, you get to host the next one.

Because I think that this WoGE is still a bit easy, I invoke Schott's Rule: former winners have to wait until posting for 1 hour for each WoGE they got right.

Posting time is 24 February, 22:00 CET (21:00 UTC).

Have fun and good luck!

Comments 8

  1. Christoph 4 ⟨ 25 Feb 2011, 03:14 PM | #  ⟩

    That was hard! I knew from the beginning where to search, but the area is huge and everything looks similar.
    It's the Okavango delta (19°25'57"N 23°26'23"E) in Botswana. This crazy, 1000 miles long river decided not flow into an ocean as normal rivers would do, but to disappear in a swamp in the Kalahari desert. The delta is almost as large as Belgium. A great place for millions of birds, fishes, crocodiles, and hippos. It's estimated that 11km³ of water reach the delta per year. This should lead to an increase of the salt content and to a rapid salinization of the entire area, but that doesn't happen. Luckily, most of the water is not evaporated but transpirated by the plants, so the salt concentrates at their roots and on the islands. Additionally, the floodings occur periodically, so there's time for the soils to regenerate.
    The river is controlled by faults (Gomare, Kunyere and Thamalakane) that act as natural dams and force the water to flow in the deserts. It's estimated that the Thamalakane fault is active since 2 ma.

  2. fj 232 ⟨ 25 Feb 2011, 08:33 PM | #  ⟩

    Christoph, you're quite quick. 😉

    I thought that recognising that it's in the Okavango delta would take a bit longer.

    Of course the area is huge, but I tried to choose a spot that would offer a bit of help. The image suggests a WNW-ESE trending border between moist and dry areas, so the location would be on the south border of one of the big branches. And there's the isolated river course in the SW.

    So my guess was right: the puzzle was a rather easy one, withstanding only a little bit more than 17 hours. 😉

    Thanks for the nice explanation about the faults influencing the Okavango system. (However, 2 ma seem quite recent. *g*)

    WoGE 271 is yours!

  3. Christoph 4 ⟨ 25 Feb 2011, 09:54 PM | #  ⟩

    Hm, you're right. With a little more attention to the image features I could have shortened my browsing time...

    WoGE 271 will be at http://www.paleoseismicity.org/ on Monday evening.

    Cheers and a nice wekend,

    Christoph

  4. Felix Bossert 17 ⟨ 25 Feb 2011, 10:29 PM | #  ⟩

    looks like we gonna have a boring weekend...

  5. fj 232 ⟨ 26 Feb 2011, 02:08 AM | #  ⟩

    Felix, just have a try at the old WoGEs. I did this when I first came across the game.

  6. Felix Bossert 17 ⟨ 26 Feb 2011, 07:52 AM | #  ⟩

    I'm going to try my luck here.

  7. Christoph 4 ⟨ 26 Feb 2011, 12:59 PM | #  ⟩

    For not getting bored I recommend to read the fascinating story of Chonosuke Okamura:
    http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i6/okamura-6-6.html

  8. fj 232 ⟨ 28 Feb 2011, 09:52 PM | #  ⟩

    Christoph has published WoGE #271 on his blog.

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