When viewed from above, much of the landscape of South Carolina is clearly covered in mysterious oval depressions that aren’t obvious from ground level. Known as “Carolina Bays”, nobody really knows how these unique geological features were formed.

Despite their name, Carolina Bays can also be found in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and northcentral Florida. They vary in size from one to several thousand acres, and are often gathered in groups. Many are filled with water and named as lakes, but most contain vegetated wetland.

Most striking however, is that every single one is invariably aligned in almost exactly same direction - which has led some people to claim that they might be the result of a meteor impact. It would have to have been a pretty serious impact, as there are estimated to be over 500,000 of them. This is Lake Waccamaw, north Carolina, which is widely considered the largest Carolina bay.

George Howard (a bit of a Carolina Bay fanatic), has created an exhaustive KML file that marks the location of many thousands of the bays in North Carolina. This image was taken in Google Earth, and shows the white outlines that have been used to mark the locations.

So, who here can solve the mystery of the Carolina Bays?

You can read more about Carolina Bays at Wikipedia. Thanks to Keith Wright, david and Ogle Earth.

A Google engineer, who asked to remain anonymous, has just emailed to let us know about an amazing new secret feature in both Google Earth and Google Maps: two new satellite modes which let you see heat maps and believe it or not, literally inside buildings… yes, Google have added both X-ray and infrared thermal imagery!

Even more incredibly, the first location to receive the new X-ray and infrared thermal imagery is none other than The Pentagon! Click on the thumbnail images, or load up Google Earth to see these undocumented layers.

The Pentagon recently blocked Google from capturing Street View images of US military bases, but Google have now hit back thanks to a loophole in the law. Because space falls outside of international jurisdiction, the US government is powerless to stop Google’s satellites looking inside America’s highest security building!

Google haven’t made a statement yet so this feature is still completely unofficial, meaning we don’t know when it might be rolled out for the rest of the world. However, imagine the repercussions for global privacy if the X-ray and infrared images were combined with the Live images in Google Earth that we reported on this time last year…

It’s been just over a month since Google added 12 new US cities to Street View, and yesterday we got new imagery in another 13 cities, and interestingly, a US national park! Here’s some of the highlights, including links straight there:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Austin, Texas
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Rockford, Illinois
• Richmond, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington
• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Tampa, Florida

Finally, Google have also added imagery for the few roads that run through Yosemite National Park, California, which enables us to see some pretty stunning scenery.

Here’s El Capitan, a 910 metre vertical rock formation that’s a popular challenge for rock climbers, and some spectacular Giant Redwoods living up to their name!

Read the full story at the Google Lat Long Blog, read more about El Capitan and Giant Redwoods at Wikipedia.

Alan Turnbull (no relation) contacted us to tell us about his bizarre find at RAF Feltwell in Norfolk, England, which at first glance looks like it might be the world’s most complicated sports pitch.

But what is it really? RAF Feltwell is currently used by the United States Air Forces Europe, and Alan suggests that this could be some sort of satellite calibration test card for the US ‘Son of Star Wars’ missile defence programme!

Naturally a MoD spokesperson quoted in The Metro newspaper suggested that this is simply a “motorcycle range”¹, but interestingly there are another two of them side by side at the absolutely massive US Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia².

Alan’s website has more details on various crazy conspiracy theories, and the Metro went with the “proof of aliens” headline - so we’re left without a definitive answer so far. What do you think these things are for?

Following on from January’s World’s biggest passenger ships post, today we’re going to be looking at the largest aircraft carriers on the water. These warships act as mobile airbases, allowing aircraft to be launched as close to the theatre of war as possible.

Starting with the largest, the undisputed Queen of the seas is the USS Enterprise, which takes the title of being the largest naval vessel on Earth (or water!), with a massive length of 342.3 metres.

Enterprise is moored up alongside the almost-as-large USS Harry Truman and Roosevelt. Like the other seven of the Nimitz class carriers, these are 333m long. Roosevelt, nicknamed ‘Rough Rider’, was responsible for nearly 5000 tonnes of bombs dropped during the first Gulf War.

The Naval Station at Norfolk, Virginia, where these three ships reside when not on active duty, is actually the largest naval base in the World, with 75 ships calling it home - as well as having, incidentally, a huge amount of car-parking spaces!

The USS George HW Bush is the last in Nimitz class, before the new Ford class carriers start being built, and is named for former President Bush. Costing a whopping $4.5 billion, this 333m carrier is on track to be delivered this year. She is seen here in construction at the Northrop Grumman shipyard, also in Norfolk.

(You can see a Microsoft Live Maps birds eye view of it in construction here, but sadly it still isn’t compatible with Safari!)

Back in 1957, the largest naval vessel ever built was the Forrestal Class USS Ranger, which measures 319m and is capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft aboard.

Ranger is seen here with Forrestal class USS Independence and the Kitty Hawk class USS Constellation, which have all been decommissioned to the Naval Air Station in Bremerton, WA.

Now taking the role of the Sea, Air and Space museum in New York City, the USS Intrepid saw service from World War 2 right through to 1974, including in the Vietnam war, where planes would often be launched from her in intervals as small as every 26 seconds!

In late 2006 Intrepid was dragged out of the Hudson river’s mud (with considerable effort) and transferred to Staten Island for repair work. She is expected to be back on display in September.

The most noticeable of Intrepid’s aircraft is the Lockheed A-12, the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird which is famed for flying from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes! You might recognise the plane from ‘I am Legend’, where Will Smith’s character spends time hitting golf balls from her wing.

She may be just a wee tiddler at 214m (this photo shows a comparison between a Nimitz class ship and the HMS Illustrious), but it would be wrong to not include at least one British vessel! HMS Invincible was decommissioned in 2005, and is seen here at Portsmouth Harbour. She’s definitely going nowhere - you can see her propellers lying on the deck!

She was superseded by HMS Illustrious - found in dry-dock in Rosyth having a refit, which was completed last year. In 2014, the first of the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to enter service, at a much more substantial 274m in length. HMS Prince of Wales will join her in 2016.

Previosuly on Google Sightseeing: Carrier Landing Practice Runway and Landlocked.

Thanks: Andrew, Kevin, tsw and many, many others!

The White House is, as we all know, the official residence of the President of the United States. But did you also know that the White House is the official residence of an Iranian immigrant?

Of course, I’m not talking about the original White House, in today’s world a man born in Iran would probably get shot for going near the White House, let alone pitching a tent. I’m instead talking about Fred Milani’s home in Atlanta.

Mr Milani, an Iran-born American citizen, built his mini White House in 2001. It boats 36 rooms and in terms of area is about 30% that of the original White House, although the layout is completely different.

Only six of the 36 rooms are bedrooms while the other rooms in the house include the “Monkey Room”, decorated with monkeys and leopard print, the “Queen Room”, with lots of pink pillows, and the “Oval office”. Oval here is used loosely as the room isn’t oval-shaped, but it does feature a replica of Abraham Lincoln’s old desk.

Other replica White House homes around the US include this one in Fairfax County, Virginia.

A smaller replica in San Antonio, Texas.

And lastly in Dallas, Texas there’s a “Red House” - A White House replica purportedly made out of red bricks.

You might say these replicas are all a bit tacky, but even the President’s White House is a rip-off. The original designs were based on Leinister House in Dublin, Ireland.

Thanks IBreakCellPhones, craigclarke and Bird’s Eye Tourist

Submitter Cybervox points us to a suspicious building that supposedly houses a furniture manufacturer, yet has almost a dozen satellite dishes in various sizes. His website has ground level photos and speculation on what goes on there.

Government conspiracy or a guy with a lot of TV channels? Decide for yourselves.

Update: If you can’t be bothered deciding for yourself then read this very thorough comment from kjfitz, who completely debunks the conspiracy theories.

Thanks: Cybervox & kjfitz

The last battleships ever built by the United States are known as “Iowa class” and were named after the states of Missouri, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Iowa. The four ships were built in the 1940s and between them have served in almost every major U.S. battle between then and the 1990s when they were decommissioned. There’s loads more detail about the ships on the Wikipedia page.

The USS Wisconsin is currently berthed in Norfolk, VA. It is in an Inactive Reserve status, meaning that it is still a commissioned warship of the U.S. Navy, but not in active service.

The USS New Jersey is now a museum at Camden, New Jersey.

The USS Missouri is berthed in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

The USS Iowa is part of the previously posted Suisun Bay reserve fleet in California (it’s the big one on the end). The Iowa is the only ship of the four which is currently not open to the public but has recently been acquired by Stockton, California where it will be a museum.

Thanks: Robert Amos for compiling links to all four ships and many other people for submitting at least one of the ships.