Black Holes
Tuesday, 7th June 2005 by Alex Turnbull
Finally! We have proof that Google is hiding things from us in Alaska, Mexico and er... New Jersey. Hmmm. Anyway, it's a conspiracy I tell you!
Firstly stretching over a large part of Alaska, all the way into the Yukon territory, is this gargantuan hole in the landscape. Interesting shape too...
Next we leap to the other side of the country for a very strangely-shaped hole West of El Paso. See the odd in-road of detail at the bottom-left corner of the rectangle? Weird.
While we're down in Mexico, look at this super-cool hole which appears to be eating the surrounding landscape. Good lord!
Another country-wide leap and we're somewhere off the coast of New Jersey, where this unsuspecting little boat is about to steer itself straight into the next episode of Lost!
However, could this incredibly exciting conspiracy theory simply be something much mre mundane..?
Muchos gracias to Eder Chiunti, Dan Karran, Lurlock, JoakimE and Ian.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Looking on the edges of the high-res area around Anchorage many “holes” like the last one in the bost can be found, but this one is much better than others!
PA has a coast?
Uhm… Is it just me but does one of the holes that XF poseted about have a logo in it?
And up and down the border of the low-res and high-res region in XF’s post there are black holes with crosshairs!?
Oops! Thanks Ross, post updated 😉 I didn’t see that giant ‘New Jersey’ writing there! Huh… shows you how much I’ve learned about geography whilst running this site huh?
Is it just me or does that last post look like the tip of a compass when zoomed way in?
There are more holes like this out there to be found — I once came across a diamond shaped black patch not listed here, but I assumed it was a browser error or something non-map related and ignored it. Now I know better.
The government requires that satelite photos remove pictures of restricted areas. I’d guess that the blanks you’re seeing are related to that.
Paul: No, they don’t, that would be a limit to the freedom of speech, and thus bad. If they did, you wouldn’t be able to look up Area 51 or the White House on there.
Not all of that imagery is satellite collection. The logo says RMK TOP [rotated 180′] – it’s an aerial camera setup.
There’s even another strange hole with some numbers in it.. BTW holes can be found everywhere along the “high-res border” around Anchorage. It might just be some extra laziness of google’s photoshoppers… 😛
Paul & Ben, restricted areas do exist, and they are not black holes, but blurred. For example, see Dick Cheney’s house.
Or the White House and the tops of buildings nearby.
View Placemark
The New Jersey imagery is from 2002 color infrared aerial photography that was manipulated to appear to be true color. I looked on the aerials to see what’s behind the black spot, and there’s nothing but open water. This may be due to the fact that four tiles come together there (each with different bay conditions and thus different textures), and the method Google uses to smooth out edges looked funny and they simply removed it.
Paul, Ben and Martey, I guess the black holes are the areas of top secrecy. Something that’s more confidential then even the White House, Dick Cheney’s house and everything else blurred on Google Maps taken in common.
I’ll say some military facilities, secret nuclear weapons… We can only guess…
Wasn’t the missle silo in the opening of WarGames located in Alaska?
FWIW – most of the Alaska holes came up during the UFO discussion.
In that area of Alaska theres an experimental weather controll device called HAARP, that could be partly why its blacked out.
Or it could just be a programming error, corrupted image, or programmer’s joke. All this conspiracy theory isn’t really nessecary.
There’s also the off chance that people knew when the photos would be taken ahead of time, and staged something really large and offensive. Just a thought.
any idea why dc’s house is pixeled out?
For the New Jersey one, didn’t an F-14 crash there a few years ago? Could be that. Or uhh not.
Ben Brockert; they aren’t allowed to remove the restricted areas, but they do blur it out. If you’d look up Capitol Hill, you’d find that it and the surrounding buildings are all one giant fuzzy patch.
Here’s the big-black-rectangular-hole in Russia: View Placemark
😉
As far as I know, there is no freedom of speech for spy satellites.
the blacked out area in alaska is a confirmed experimental weather/radio station that bounces high energy waves off the ionisphere, it has been reported that with the station in montana that should not exist, could be used with beam-steering capabilities to manipulate the weather. the power used by just the alaska station is over 3.6 MW, they can cook a steak from 70 miles away.
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/ http://www.weatherwars.info/
your right these arn’t black holes!
HAARP is here.
look at these
61 12’10.28″N 150 01’51.82″W
61 12’51.81″N 150 01’40.29″W
if it don,t work try again but connect to the last thing
Got another one in Alaska, I know it’s not secret keeping because I’ve hiked through the area and there isn’t anything there, but anyway, take it or leave it: 61 03′ 55. 55″ N 149 39’07.31″ W
Actually, now that I look for a second, if you follow along the lines of resolution right along the chugiak range there, the black holes with targets are about every 1/4 mile. so keep your eyes peeled.
y do they do this?
This is friggin crazy! We shouldn’t be seeing these. You know what these are? The government has been experimenting with missile-mounted endothermic bombs. The black areas are actually blast sites where all matter and energy have been absorbed by the detonation. … It’s quite obvious, really. Programming errors are absurd conclusions! (Honestly guys. “HAARP”? Give us a break.)
This is stupid most of the “black holes” are no longer there, if you notice the are strips (how google takes the pictures). Nothing special. Get a life and make sure you wear a lead helmet at all times so the government can’t get into your brains.
The black rectangular shapes, found on the border of Alaska/Canada, and also in the middle og Greenland is nothing else than glitches in the picture layers. People been nagging for years about haarp and conspiracies. It is really easy isn’t it…
Yes you are right i saw a black line in greenland (i found fire by the black line) it all makes senice now…
…just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you
Well I hate to be such an obvious person, however don’t get me wrong I just as much of a theorist as the you guys…. but did anyone here think that those “Black Holes” are actually sections that were being re-done, I mean it does take a lot of pictures and a lot of time to piece Google Earth together… and maybe those are parts that just need a little work, how many times have you gone back to those area’s and double checked out your “Black Holes” but part of me hopes your right lol
You can see HAARP’s image on Google Maps. The black bar near that area is not HAARP.
While some may have good explanations like errors, or bad photos, I can assure you with 100% certainty that there ARE areas REQUIRED to be blacked out COMPLETELY. When KeyHole was first launched, and through the early parts of GMaps the area over Cheyenne Air Station / NORAD were blacked out JUST like this, along with areas outside Langley, which are both Gov’t institutions. The fact that both were blacked out CLEARLY indicates that some areas are secret enough to be covered up in sat imagery.
You would think they would just superimpose some “nothing-ness” in those areas instead, but they dont…
And remember it’s not paranoia that the gov’t is covering up thing from US, our enemy’s can use GMaps too.
RE the Alaska photos, I know there is another “Air Station” that was built to monitor a possible attack from the Soviets from Alaska, but I have no idea where that facility is. I know in the ’80s the number one “enemy attack location” in the US was the AK facility, and #2 was NORAD. (Having grown up in CO and going to school a few miles from NORAD, that was always a “worry” of our parents….)
The place mentioned above in russia has been painted over a bit, as if to hide it from being noticed and asked about. If it were a bad picture, it might be easier to just fill in? Im not much of a conspiricy theorist, but compared to the technology some of our enemies have, wouldn’t it be easier to buy a computer and use google maps if it was a tell all in sattelite imagery?
Re: The Russia “blur” it is interesting that if you zoom in pretty close, it looks like they have cut out a rectangle in ps and placed in some basic mountain imagery and blurred it. Which seems counter productive to me. Just cut in a spot of blank mountain, blend the edges and leave it be. Granted its still Russia, and you probably cant just drive on over there, or fly a private plane over that area, but it still brings MORE attention to the area, than just filling in with open area…
I mean if I was in an govt intelligence agency, every time a new “blur” popped up (IF google doesnt just release the original images to intel agencies) I would take an immediate interest and make sure my countries sat’s got a good pass on that area next time by. As a govt, why would you want to bring attention to a sensitive area, by blurring it, why wouldnt you just cut in something basic.
Then again, any country with the ability to go after covert targets and take an interest, have their own sat’s to get original imagery, at a much greater detail, so I guess it is just moot. More of a keep the public in the dark, vs another govt. I suppose it probably serves a decent purpose in areas like Russia where there are potential rebel groups that would love a high value target, and by blurring the area it takes it out of a rebels cross hairs, since chances are they dont have the intel or people to go see what it really is, nor have access to raw sat imagery.
The thing that yanks me the most about US “blurs” and “black holes” is the fact that it is obviously an attempt to hide something from the casual citizen, and in a supposed Democracy / Republic, you cant convince me that hiding these institutions from sat photos, esp at a range that doesnt really give you much, is making us safer…it just makes the informed more concerned about the lack of honesty and transparency in our govt.
I have a fairly good knowledge of US Intel S.O.P. and how they handle info to the public, along with multiple levels of Fed, Regional, and Local LE agencies, and the amount of data kept from the public is ridiculous.
I know it all gets thrown under the umbrella of “National Security” but BS. The Taliban, or whomever can gain LOADS of high value intel from gmaps such as power grids, nucular power stations, water supplies, etc. The amount of avail data to enemies on how to undertake an attack against the US in multiple non-traditional ways (aka 9/11, mail anthrax, etc) outweighs the hiding of the majority of these locations from the general public.
Then again, if you believe This Guy that spot in Alaska is a secret “space beacon” stolen (now returned) from space from the “alien watchers” of our galaxy.
For a good [jovial] read checkout: Space Beacons Beacons Returned
1) there are several military training areas all over AK 2) its illegal to photo the military in training unless auth. 3) yes there are MANY anti-missile andnuke silos from the cold war era. (one is less then 5 miles N of anchorage) 4) its also illegal to photo these locations (iv been called several times to aprehend people at that location)
There are some blacked out regions in Broken Bow, NE. The area is famous for its giant feed lots of cattle that live in manure. For some reason, there are four large areas that google has blacked out.
View Placemark
the canadian part of the big rectangle you can zoom in! but the u.s. part you can’t. it’s just black. and that thing near el paso is away now, but there’s something other weird there: there’s a highway leading to nowhere…. 😉 (also in the west. i think there are still very old images) and that black thing of the last post has really a compass on it (when you zoom in you can see a red N)…
These are zones that the milatry ( FBI ect…) don’t want you to see