We have collected maps of the Earth that show what Google Maps does not show: continental drift, migration of giant magma bubbles below the surface, retreat and snowfall. To truly get to know the planet, you need to look wider.
What is drawn on the map in the geography office is valid only for a relatively short period of time (plus or minus 50 million years) and reflects only the situation on the Earth's surface - and only average annual values. But there are maps that will help you understand what was happening on Earth before, how it is changing throughout the year now, and what is happening inside the globe.
Ancient Earth and continental drift
Do not remember how modern continents came from Pangea? The online map created by the geologist Christopher Scotese and associates within the Paleomap project perfectly shows the modern ideas about the geological past of the planet.
The interactive map of the ancient Earth is very easy to navigate: you can navigate between time periods or between the main events of the planet's history (this requires a minimum knowledge of English: select the "first dinosaurs" or "first coral reefs" in the upper right corner). Brief annotations in the lower left corner of the screen complete the picture.
Promotional video:
What's hidden under the mantle
We know very little about what is happening in the Earth's interior. There, under a solid mantle, streams of hot stone and metal move heavily. Sometimes they form droplets the size of entire continents, and seismologists notice the movement of these droplets, reading the readings of their instruments, because the droplet substance slows down the propagation of seismic waves. You can get an idea of how they look from the 3D model below. It was developed this year by the Cambridge seismologist Sanne Cottaari and the geologist Ved Lekich of the University of Maryland.
Gravity
You have seen a physical map of the Earth many times - with mountains and valleys, but what about a gravity map? The mass of our planet is about 6.58 thousand quintillion tons (6.58x10 21), but on all parts of the surface its attraction is uniform; the distribution of rocks and water creates differences in the strength of gravity in different parts of the globe. A map of gravity was compiled at the beginning of the two thousandth based on measurements of two NASA satellites - the GRACE mission. On the website of the NASA data visualization center, this video card can be downloaded and viewed in detail.
Earth is a living planet
This video card, compiled from an archive of data that NASA satellites have collected for 20 years, shows how our planet "breathes": how plants cover desert areas during wet seasons and recede into dry seasons, how ocean phytoplankton migrate, how snow and ice come and go … The Earth is a complex dynamic system, and no static map reflects the real picture of what is happening on the planet.