How Big is the Oil Spill?

Over on the Atlantic website, James Fallows points to a good use of Google Earth to help visualize the surface area of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Using this utility, you can map the spill onto any city to see how far reaching it is (The utility requires the Google Earth plugin). Here is the spill mapped to Dallas:

Fallows notes “the surprising power that different visual renderings of reality can have, in changing our ability to understand, or at least begin to envision, what is going on around us.”

Used properly, Google Earth can be an effective tool in litigation graphics— not only for capturing still images, but also for live presentations during trials. The ability to pan, tilt, rotate and zoom Google’s satellite maps makes presentations lively and engaging. In the right situation, Google Earth can go beyond what a traditional, static map might offer.

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