Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

Mount Bromo and the Mystery Grids

Posted by Alex Turnbull, Friday, 23rd June 2006

I realise we’ve had quite a few volcanoes this week, but you guys keep submitting them, so here’s just one more. This is the Mount Bromo in the Tenggar caldera, Indonesia, which I think looks fantastic with just one solitary puff of smoke leaking from the crater.

Slightly to the north there’s a lake (which could be an old volcano itself I suppose) which has an odd collection of grid-like objects floating on it. Answers on a postcard please…

Thanks to Arthur van Leeuwen, blouet, Asprine, Alastair Dodd and Tggb3k.

Countries: Indonesia

Posted in: Natural Landmarks, Volcanoes

21 Responses to 'Mount Bromo and the Mystery Grids'

1. cookie monster says: June 23rd, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Giant Shreddies?
2. Steve says: June 23rd, 2006 at 4:36 pm
They look like blocks used to divert lava flows, they are placed in front of the local housing.
3. Tim says: June 23rd, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I’m guessing they’re for fishing. Fish farms maybe? No, I’m serious, they could be hatcheries.
4. Gwaer says: June 23rd, 2006 at 5:11 pm
No, No, No…

Those objects are… FIRE TRAINING AIRCRAFTS!!! BUHAHAHAHAH

… or children playground?
5. davide says: June 23rd, 2006 at 5:11 pm
hmmm… steve, if they need to divert the lava flows wouldn’t they be facing the volcano?
i agree with the hatchery theory, there are others in the middle of the lake which vaguely remember this:
http://archive.orr.noaa.gov/photos/exxon/06.html
6. JammerX says: June 23rd, 2006 at 6:12 pm
They’re fish farms. If you zoom back, you can see that they are all over this inlet. Fish is a principal part of the diet in this region and it’s doubtful that wild fish can sustain demand. Hence, the farms.
7. Tggb3k says: June 23rd, 2006 at 7:24 pm
That was fast. I submitted this yesterday, I think I just stole the thunder of a few people that submitted this a long time ago. Oh well, fish farms you say… I’ll allow it
8. Patrick says: June 23rd, 2006 at 8:13 pm
I don’t know about the rest of you guys…..but MY GAWD!!! This new massive Google Maps update is really just overwhelming. I mean, all over Africa, Asia, Australia….SOuth Pacific. Consider my Gob officially Smacked.
9. Alex says: June 23rd, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Patrick I feel exactly the same - there is **so** much new stuff that we pretty much don’t know where to start! I think we still need some time to soak it all in…
10. Matt Schneider says: June 24th, 2006 at 4:12 am
No, no, no, they’re fish farms, no doubt.
11. Alan says: June 24th, 2006 at 6:42 am
That is totally a cloud…you could probably figure out how high it is from the shadow if you were so inclined. Smoke…any know if there is a site listing active volcanoes?
12. Alex says: June 24th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Alan, I thought it was a cloud too, but it *is* an active volcano, and this picture convinced me this was actually coming from the volcano! (See the Placemark: Semeru / Google Earth volcano for another fine example)

Here’s a list of volcanoes on Wikipedia - most of which have linked lat/longs for easy viewing on your favourite map source.
13. Graeme says: June 25th, 2006 at 2:14 am
jammerx is right, they are fish farms. if they where to divert the lava flow, then why would they be in the water? anyway, you can see houses built[presumably on stilts]next to the fish farms: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
14. catogan says: June 25th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Alan,
Is this helpfull ?

http://www.geocodezip.com/v2_activeVolcanos.asp
15. Kirk says: June 26th, 2006 at 3:29 am
Just Slightly North of the Volcano is a large and very isolated compound. Perhaps a prison because of the double fence around one of the areas. I don’t even see an axcess road. I wonder what that is and why is it so close to an active volcano.
16. Nikolay says: June 26th, 2006 at 8:12 am
I saw them just now and i’m sure they’re definitely fish farms. Note the southeast in the lake, the same constructions in the water. These on the beach are not used at this moment.
17. Sven says: June 26th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Kirk, the isolated compound is apparently a Hindu temple, check out this photo:
http://www-gpi.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/ego/Indonesien/indo10.html
and
http://wikitravel.org/en/Mount_Bromo
Just slightly to the south of the temple you can see the start of the steep path and on the end is a ledge to look in the caldera.
18. Jack says: June 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Theise are fish farms. I’ve visited just to the north of the lake. It gets very cold, and the lake freezes over - hense the white ice! Only half the lake it icy becase there is a picture boundry - one taken in winter, one som other time.
19. cirko says: June 27th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
these fish farms look approximately like this:
http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/PH0004-e.htm
20. BP says: August 30th, 2006 at 5:07 am
No. I’ve visted Mt. Bromo many times. There’s no fish farm in there. I’m pretty sure this is a technical problem during the photographing process. There’s no ice can be formed in Mt. Bromo. The lowest temp could only reach 10C or around 40F.
21. Chris says: November 7th, 2006 at 5:21 am
First of all it gets dang cold at Bromo and this stupid pic is just some retard messing with your mind. Bromo is one of the most amazing places on earth and its like taking a trip to the moon, the sun rise at Bromo should be a wonder of the modern world, but Indo doesnt get the publicity it deserves