The first land on Earth that welcomed in the new year was this secluded tropical beach on uninhabited Caroline Island – sorry, Millennium Island, the easternmost outpost of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Since Kiribati spans both sides of the 180° meridian, it has decided to push the international Date Line two time zones east to the eastern boundary of the country so that all of its residents operate on the same day. Millennium Island got its new name over a decade ago to commemorate it being the first land on Earth to experience the year 2000.

The first people to celebrate 2012 were the residents of Kiritmati¹ (Christmas Island), and the first people that saw sun rise on 1 January 2012 were the 1,200 residents of Kiritimati’s easternmost village, Banana. The first actual sunrise, however, occurred around this remote headland in East Antarctica (not that anyone saw it).

The country of Samoa used to be the last inhabited place on Earth to ring in the new year, but not any more. In an effort to coordinate itself better with regional powers New Zealand and Australia, on 31 December Samoa moved to the other side of the Date Line and jumped ahead a day, meaning the city of Apia was the first national capital to see the new year, an hour after Kiritmati.

Also making the move across the Date Line this year is the tiny New Zealander territory of Tokelau, an hour ahead of Samoa. Tokelau’s seat of government rotates between its three atolls, meaning that easternmost Fakaofo atoll was the first territorial capital to celebrate 2012.

With Samoa moving across the Date Line, the honour of being the last national capital to celebrate the new year is now shared by seven North American cities. Mexico City, Guatemala City, Belmopan (Belize), Tegucigalpa (Honduras), San Salvador (El Salvador), Managua (Nicaragua), and San Jose (Costa Rica) all celebrated 19 hours after Apia. We’ll show you Tegucigalpa as a cheap way to finally cross Honduras off our list of countries visited here at Google Sightseeing!

Six hours later, Alofi (Niue) and Pago Pago (American Samoa) were the last territorial capitals to say goodbye to 2011. Despite being just 50 km (30 mi) from the other half of Samoa, American Samoa is now 25 hours behind it!

Although part of the Tokelau archipelago to the northwest, Swains Island is governed by American Samoa. This open clearing is Taulaga, the only village on Swains and home of the last people on Earth who saw the sun come down on 2011.

As for the last places on Earth to leave 2011 behind, those were the remote, uninhabited United States outposts of Howland and Baker islands, some 26 hours after the people in Tokelau and eastern Kiribati did so. Considering they’re only visited every couple of years by researchers and Coast Guard vessels, it seems unlikely there was any sort of celebration taking place there at the time.

We hope 2012 is a good year for all of you, even if you don’t have as much left of it to enjoy as the American Samoans.²

Locations: Antarctica, North America, Polynesia, Samoa, U.S. Insular Areas, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, Unincorporated territory of the U.S. / Categories: Islands, Weirdness

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Rising 3,794 metres (12,448 feet) out of the Southern Ocean at the centre of Ross Island, Mount Erebus sits just over 12 degrees north of the South Pole. Despite being permanently encased in snow and ice, the volcano has not only been continuously erupting since 1972 but also hosts one of the world’s longest-lasting lava lakes.

Erebus was first discovered in 1842 and was first climbed in 1908 by members of Ernest Shackelton’s Nimrod Expedition, who made it all the way up to the massive 4.3 km (2.7 mile)-wide caldera. From above, we can see not just the caldera but the large cone forming in the middle of it.

Zooming in, we can see the gas being emitted from the lava lake at the centre of the cone making its way up the cone’s wall to the left. Amazingly, Erebus has been active for the past 1.3 million years.

Despite the heat being generated at the top of the volcano, this is still Antarctica, and consequently Erebus is covered in white stuff. In high-res imagery, we can clearly see deep cracks and crevasses in the ice wherever the slope gets steep. These dangerous slopes were partly responsible for of one of the most tragic crashes in aviation history. On 28 November 1979, all 257 persons aboard Air New Zealand Flight 901 were killed when the plane slammed into the side of Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip in whiteout conditions. Most of the wreckage still remains on the mountainside to this day.

Photo by Mike Subritzky.

Erebus shares Ross Island with three other volcanoes, all of which are extinct. The caldera on top of Mount Terror on the east side of the island still remains visible through the snow despite having stopped erupting nearly a million years ago.

At the southern foot of Mount Erebus lies the unique Erebus Ice Tongue, a large glacier fed by the snow slowly moving down the volcano’s slopes toward the sea ice below. The ice tongue sticks out an incredible 12 km (7.5 miles) into the frozen ocean.

Just south of the ice tongue are two of the largest research stations in all of Antarctica, the United States’ McMurdo Station and New Zealand’s Scott Base. Between the two bases, over 260 people call this peninsula home year-round; that number balloons to over 1,300 in summer.

The stations are served by three airstrips, including the main strip built directly on the sea ice. Zoomed in tight, we can even make out service vehicles hard at work ploughing the snow off the access road.

For those interested in keeping up-to-date with the latest volcanic activity on Mount Erebus, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology operates the Mount Erebus Volcanic Observatory at the foot of the mountain. You can keep track of the eruptions, view the latest scientific data, and even view live imagery during the southern summer at the observatory’s website.

Locations: Antarctica / Categories: Islands, Natural Landmarks, Volcanoes

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Did they know Google were on their way?

This message on a Dublin beach, “CYNTHIA, WILL YOU MARRY ME?”, nearly passes our stringent rules for acceptance of aeroplane-visible marriage proposals, but did Cynthia accept?

Thanks to LancelotLink

We’re pretty sure this crop-maze in France depicts a couple of bananas riding bicycles, but we haven’t a clue why.

Thanks to Rod

In Argentina we find another strange design decision, where somebody has arranged a whole bunch of trees into a giant guitar. For some reason this seems more sensible than the cycling bananas, but only just.

Thanks to Mick

OK, a giant guitar we kind of get, but who on Earth would want a swimming pool shaped like a foot? Somebody in Japan apparently.

Thanks to Jamie

Crazy roads

This ridiculously bendy road in the mountains of Chile must surely be a contender for the most bends covering the shortest distance award. As the crow flies, obviously.

Thanks to Shaun

Meanwhile, we suspect these “speed bumps” would cause a little more slowdown than required on Interstate 91, Massachusetts. If you drove really fast at them however…

Thanks to Meredith

You’d never see this any other way

This chilling scene capture the remains of a wrecked boat on the shores of a remote Antarctic island.

Thanks to Brian

In the news

Last week Apple announced iCloud, a new “cloud”-based music and data service for all you squillions of iPad and iPhone users – and here’s the brand spanking new facility in North Carolina where all your data will be stored (once you’ve unquestioningly uploaded it all of course).

Elsewhere, the actions of some unruly New Zealand students made headlines around the world when they did what students have done since students were invented – they drew pictures of penises. Except these students did it on a much larger scale than your average students. Compensating for something boys?

Have you found something weird, amazing, beautiful or completely inexplicable on Google Maps or Google Earth? Send us your suggestions and we’ll publish the best ones next week!

Locations: Antarctica, Argentina, Chile, France, Ireland, Japan, Massachusetts, New Zealand, North Carolina / Categories: Abandoned, Large Type, Other Vehicles, Watercraft, Weirdness

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Most comprehensive sightseeing tour

We like to pretend a Google Sightseeing tour provides you with all you need to fully experience somewhere. To properly immerse yourself in this tour however, you really needed to read it whilst imbibing large quantities of single malt Scotch whisky.

Distilleries of Islay

Most utterly bizarre Street View sighting

Nearly a year later, and we still have absolutely no clue what to make of this. Just completely and utterly bizarre.

Crazy SCUBA Guys Chase Street View

Tongue-in-cheek article unintentionally causing most offence

If only we’d known that people could get so touchy about a little detail like which is the world’s highest mountain!

Mount Everest no longer world’s highest mountain

Most architecturally interesting article

Despite some disagreement in the comments about exactly what kind of architecture Gaudi created, nobody denied his work’s artistic merit.

Gaudi’s Barcelona

Greatest unsolved conspiracy

How did he know where the Street View cameras would be? Why did Google censor him? How fast can he drive the Top Gear test track in a Lego car? All these questions were asked and almost none were answered.

Stig, Stig, wherefore art thou Stig?

Most epic journey

Such an epic journey in fact, that even the thought of it exhausts us. Fortunately, Ian took us on a step-by-step guide of the whole thing on Google Street View.

The Pennine Way

Most disgusting thing ever

Many readers had apparently never heard of people leaving behind thousands and thousands of bits of old, chewed, synthetic rubber stuck to a wall in the name of “art”. Apparently those people were also blissfully happy in their ignorance.

The Gum Wall

Best previously poorly-visited sight revisited properly

The Hollywood Sign was one of the very first posts on Google Sightseeing, all the way back in April 2005. We didn’t say that much back then, so it was about time Kevin did a proper investigation into the story of this most iconic of landmarks.

The Hollywood Sign

Best Street View tour inside a volcano

Wouldn’t it be great if we’d had more than one tour on Street View inside a volcano? Well unfortunately we didn’t, but if we had, this from our fifth annual Volcano Week would definitely have won.

Diamond Head

World’s smallest “x” award

A geographically unquestionable article from Basement Geographer Kyle, which pinpointed the world’s tiniest republic. (Before you ask, the Vatican doesn’t count as it’s a city-state and therefore its own capital).

Nauru: the world’s smallest republic

Best tour of places you’ll never be allowed to go

A fascinating look inside some of the most top secret fake villages in the world! Yes, there are quite a few as it happens, but this is as close as you’re ever likely to get.

Fake villages

Best tour of somewhere that isn’t there anymore

OK, so there’s some ruins there, but there isn’t all that much to see really – however Noel did a great job of bringing these ancient relics to life.

The Ruins of the Aran Islands

People we’d least like to live next to

Of course we applaud their undiminishing dedication to their own personal causes, but honestly, would you want to live next door?

‘Creative’ Neighbours

Most terrifying top 3

Working in the aerospace industry, Chris knows his airports, and for this post he managed to find three runways which would clearly be absolutely terrifying to land on!

Top 3 Scariest Airports in the Caribbean

Best local’s guide

What guest geographer Tom doesn’t know about Washington D.C. probably isn’t to do with Geography. What he does know however, is everything odd about it that is.

Oddities in Washington, DC

Most unbelievable story

Just as in 2009, our April Fools post was the most viewed article of the entire year. Which probably tells us we shouldn’t bother trying to write factual articles, but we’ve decided to ignore the evidence and continue bringing you real sightseeing for 2011.

Secret feature lets users unblur Street View photos

Most of the time.

Locations: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia / Oceania, Europe, North America, South America / Categories: Aircraft, Buildings, Monuments, Natural Landmarks, Street Views, Structures, Volcanoes, Weirdness

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This is actually Deception Island, an oddly shaped chunk of land that almost completely encircles a 7km-wide natural harbour called Port Foster. It owes its existence to a vast volcanic eruption about 10,000 years ago, which left a crater that was subsequently flooded by the ocean.

It’s still rumbling away even today – Mount Pond, on the eastern side of the island, has erupted several times this century (could that be smoke and steam visible on the high-res imagery, or merely cloud?).

Perhaps the volcanic activity is also responsible for the curiously ruler-straight 7.5km stretch of coastline on this part of the island?

Although Port Foster is one of the safest harbours in this notoriously stormy region, in the Antarctic “safe” is all relative. The island is surrounded by hazards for unwary sailors, such as icebergs and jagged stacks of rock including the aptly named Sewing-Machine Needles. The entrance to the harbour itself, known as Neptune’s Bellows, is less than 500m¹ wide, and as if that weren’t enough it also has razor-sharp rocks waiting just below the surface.

Still, once you do make it inside, you’re well protected – and these waters have attracted a fair few sealers, whalers and Antarctic explorers over the years. In the early 20th century, several whaling companies set up operations in Whaler’s Bay (bet they thought long and hard over that name!), just inside the harbour entrance, and you can still see the rusting boilers and tanks that were once used to render the carcasses.

Being part of the Antarctic, the South Shetland Islands do not officially belong to any nation², and settlement these days is limited to scientific research stations. There have been several attempts to establish permanent bases on the island, but volcanic activity has forced most of them to be abandoned. Currently there are two bases, both of which are only occupied during the southern summer: Gabriel de Castilla (operated by Spain) and the rather less impressive looking Decepción (run by Argentina).

Gabriel de Castilla base (left) and Decepción base (right)

The volcanic activity means there are some huge extremes of temperature on the island – while there is sea ice floating just offshore, you can often find hot water at 40°C or more just underneath the black sand of the beaches. Some hardy survey teams have even taken advantage of this to dig their own “hot tubs”!³

As always, you can find out more about Deception Island at Wikipedia, including the tale of a visiting US Coast Guard ship that “became likely the only American military ship ever to run aground inside an active volcano”!

Locations: Antarctica / Categories: Buildings, Islands, Volcanoes

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As it’s Google Sightseeing’s Fifth Annual Island Week, Google have kindly added a small amount of Street View for the tiny island known as “Half Moon” in Antarctica¹, where we can marvel at a huddle of wild penguins!

The second new addition is far-reaching coverage for the large island of Ireland, with over 80,000km of road covered.

Lastly, we have Street View images for Brazil, which I doubt you’ll believe is also an island? Instead, consider this: Woo-Yeah! Carnival time!

Spotted anything funny or odd on the new Street View images? Let us know either via the form or with a tweet.

Locations: Antarctica, Brazil, Ireland / Categories: Street Views

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Overall, the continent is about 14 million square kilometres (5 million square miles)—most of it desert. That’s larger than all of Canada (10 million sq km/3.8 sq. m), but smaller than all of Russia (17 million sq km/6.5 sq. m).

As you can imagine, Google has very little detailed imagery of Anatarctica. The surface of Antarctica is 98 percent ice sheet and 2 percent barren rock, so the imagery from high altitudes does not reveal much beyond shades of white and gray.

Probably the most popular spot from which to depart for Antarctica is Ushuaia, Argentina (the capital of Tierra Del Fuego, and often regarded as the southernmost city in the world). Nearest Ushuaia are the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.

There you can see some exposed rock and the coastline—which, because of evaporation, receives slightly more precipitation than the inland areas.

In the central, inland ice shelf, Google does have highly zoomable maps—they just look like abstract art. Here’s an image where one inch equals approximately ten metres (32 feet).

Not too exciting, just miles and miles of ice. And here’s the South Pole:

The South Pole has no indigenous wildlife at all, but it does have a major scientific base nearby, South Pole Station. We have previously featured maps of several other Antarctic stations, but there does not appear to be an updated image of South Pole Station. Perhaps if Google decides to take their Street View snowmobiles on an excursion we would get images like this:

Locations: Antarctica, Antarctica / Categories: Deserts

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The research station was established way back in 1962 to study meteorology, and was the launch site of over 1000 sounding rockets. But after the Soviet collapse, Russia cut back their expenditure on Antarctica explorations and permanently closed the station.¹

Just to the west of the station, we find our first crashed plane in the snow. This Aeroflot Il-14 was heading back to the USSR when the engine failed shortly after take-off, and the plane crashed, killing 4 of the 7 passengers.

Despite the crash site being very clearly visible, this didn’t happen anytime recently. The image was taken in February 2006, but the crash itself occurred all the way back in 1979!

The cold weather has preserved the crashed plane, and the harsh conditions make any attempt to move it impossible.

Browsing around the area, we can spot another four planes, all seemingly crashed and abandoned. Perhaps this the real reason for closing the station – they kept losing too many planes!

Thanks to GEarthHacks.

Locations: Antarctica / Categories: Aircraft, Deserts

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But as climate chaos threatens our future, it also reduces the possibility of a White Christmas each year. Desperate to see some snow we have to head south to Brabant Island in Antarctica, where we find this fantastic snowball.

The snowball is about 6m wide and appears to be a natural occurrence, having recently rolled off the hills to the north. That would make a great snowman…

Also to get you in the Christmas spirit, Google have announced that in conjunction with NORAD (that’s the North American Aerospace Defence Command) they will be tracking Santa around the globe using Google Earth.

You can bookmark the page now in preparation for Christmas Eve.

Thanks: Micradott and Google LatLong

Locations: Antarctica / Categories: Natural Landmarks

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These people are representatives of the 30 countries which operate year-round or summer research stations at various locations, many of which are now viewable in Google Earth. Today we’re going to look at a few of these stations.

Russia’s Mirny station was established during the 1st Soviet Antarctica Expedition and one of the buildings has CCCP (Russian for USSR) painted on its roof.

Australia’s Casey station is a collection of colourful buildings established in 1959. The headquarters at Casey (known as the “Big Red Shed”) are likely the largest building on Antarctica.

Casey station also has a webcam, and you can see a typical day on Antarctica by watching the fantastic time lapse video of yesterday’s shots.

Antarctica has at least 20 private airports for the coming and going of all the staff, and at the UK’s Rothera Research Station we can see the snow-covered 900m runway.

Wikipedia lists 64 currently active stations, so there’s no doubt much more to be found on Antarctica.

Thanks: bruv, Gearthhacks & Rebay

Locations: Antarctica /

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