In 1948 the Soviet Union occupied East Berlin as well as the East German territory surrounding the city, so the Allied controlled West Berlin was completely landlocked by Soviet control. When the Soviets blocked all rail, road and waterway traffic into the West Berlin region the Allies began the Berlin Luftbrücke, or Air-bridge, where all supplies that the Berliners needed were flown in, at a cost of over $224 million for the 15 month campaign.

The monument to this operation is in two parts, one in Berlin and the other in Frankfurt, where half-bridge stone structures curve up towards each other. The first part is within Berlin, I know it might look like a white splodge but this ground level shot should help you decipher the satellite image. Just to the East of the monument is Tempelhof airport, where the frequent planes landed. On the monument’s plinth is the names of the 78 crew and groundstaff who died during the operation.

The Frankfurt half of the bridge is located outside Frankfurt Rhein-Main airport between a DC-4 (South) and a DC-3 (North) aircraft which carried the goods and are now on permanent display (ground level shot). Locals referred to the planes as “Rosinenbombers” (”Raisin Bombers”) as they often contained sweets for the children.

Thanks: Daniel

Just off the east coast off Spain lies this collection of holes in the Mediterranean. They’re used to drain the Atlantic, which allows for regular cleaning of the sea-bed. Honestly.

OK, so I have absolutely no idea what they are. Do you?

Update: Well, not so much of an update, more of a summary. Our ever witty readers reckon this might be: Aliens, a conspiracy, genetically modified barnacles, fishnet stockings, suckers on the arm of a giant squid, a ketchup bottle farm, tuna cages, a huge lego brick, or perhaps even a giant-sized game of Battleships! And yet somehow we remain unconvinced that any of these is the solution…

Thanks to Glaucon.

Sandwiched between Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south, this is the dying Aral Sea. Wikipedia says:

Since the 1960s the Aral Sea has been shrinking, as the rivers that feed it (the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya) were diverted by the Soviet Union for irrigation.

In 1960, the Aral Sea was the world’s fourth-largest lake, but today it has lost 80% of its volume. You can clearly see how much the water has receeded recently by comparing the satellite image with Google’s own map view (there’s no high-resolution imagery, otherwise we might be able to see some abandoned ships), and even more so by comparing it to this satellite image taken in 1985.

To make matters even worse, the ecosystem of the Aral Sea has been nearly destroyed due to high levels of salinity, industrial projects and fertilizer runoff. Not to mention a biological weapons laboratory on the Vozrozhdeniya Island…

For more information on this fascinating environmental catastrophe, make sure you read the Wikipedia page.

Thanks to Daniel Pereira, Phil Gross and Pablo Bleyer.