The Great Blue Hole Located on Lighthouse Reef, Belize

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Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole from Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 Satellite

On April 3rd the above image was posted to Earth Observatory's Image of the Day. I read the article with mild interest. I was aware of the these features, cenotes, being found throughout this part of the world. After downloading the 4 MB image of the entire reef, I figured that it would be an excellent island mapping project. I checked out the Landsat ETM+ image and it is cloud free and quite detailed. So, I began to map it.

Lighthouse Reef and the Great Blue Hole - Comparison Landsat to ASTER Images

The small cays that are located on the reef at first glance looked to be fairly simple. They were not! Wanting to do justice to the details shown on the base image, my digitizing was ultimately complex. I worked at scales between 1:25,000 to 1:12,500 for most of my digitizing.

Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole, Belize - Landsat ETM+ N-16-15_2000 Image (1-220,000)

Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole, Belize - EVS Precision Map Preliminary (1-220,000)

10-days and about 20-hours later, I am done. All of the layer colors used are my usuals, except for the ocean layer. I went with a darker blue. In my opinion, the deep blue ocean color accents the many shades of blue used in detailing the reef system.

Great Blue Hole from National Geographic

If you are curious about this feature follow the links found throughout this post. Wikipedia also has an informative article about the Great Blue Hole you might find interesting.

From a mapping perspective, I am pleased with my finished product. However, to truely appreciate the amount of detail included on the map one needs to study the vector map. It is really cool! Oh, well...I'm glad it's done. Now on to the north coast of New Britian and more reefs.

Enjoy!

Flint Island KR - A Line Island Paradise?

Flint Island - Landsat Image S-05-10_2000 (1" - 650 meters)

Flint Island - EVS Precision Map (1" - 650 meters)

"Flint Island is located about 740 kilometers (400 nautical miles) northwest of Tahiti, 190 km (100 nautical miles) south-southeast of Vostok Island, and 220 km (120 nautical miles) southwest of Caroline Island. The island is about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide at its widest point (4.0 by 0.8 km). It has a land area of 1 mi² (3 km ²) and rises to a height of 25 feet (8 m) above sea level. The island is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef and with no safe anchorage landing is difficult.

According to the U.S. Exploring Expedition (February 5, 1841), the island was thickly wooded, however the island is now mostly covered with planted coconut palms."

The above infornmation is taken from Wikipedia. The article contains a wealth of information about Flint Island. But my interest is different. My interest is about making a map of this island quickly, accurately and a quality presentation.

Here is the background. I will respect the privacy of the names of individuals contacting me and the publications they represent. I got an email today from a well-known individual representing a stellar publication gathering information on the Line Islands. I have done some mapping in this island group. I have not mapped Flint Island. I figured that I would map it and share my finished project with this individual. Certain they will be impressed by this effort, perhaps my maps might end up in this stellar publication's pages. Just maybe. Oh well, if nothing comes of this effort, I have made an interesting map and I like it. I hope all of you...

Enjoy!

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Thoughts - EVS Islands and Wikipedia

How To Get Back To Page One On Google Search Results

One gets spoiled having your posts consistently showing up on page one of Google search results. Having recently (11/01/2008) undergone the shame of having my posts moved from page one to page fifty-one, I have pondered how best to get back to page one. I think I have a way - Wikipedia, both praised and reviled, but consistently it's articles are page one on most Google search results.

Aratika Atoll Wikipedia Page (Old Style)

Enter Aratika Atoll and Google returns the Wikipedia entry at page one number two. Go to the entry and previous to my rework of the Wikipedia article, you would have seen the above. An Astronaut Photograph of the atoll, a brief text entry, along with a few Reference links make up the entire article. Frankly, it's okay. However, I decided these atoll / island entries needed a few changes.

Aratika Atoll Wikipedia Page (New Style)

This is the same article with my changes that not only benefit the reader by adding consistent image content, but also applies some formatting to aid in the flow of information. Let's see what I've done.

Aratika Atoll Wikipedia Page (New Style - Top)

Up top I've included a Tuamotus Locator Map (see the red arrow). It will allow the reader a view of the island within a broader spatial context. I've not added anything to the text portion.

Aratika Atoll Wikipedia Page (New Style - Bottom)

I've added a section called Images & Maps. It is in this section that I post any Wikipedia qualified image or map of the entire atoll. For sure I include the EVS precision map and Landsat image and when available, the ISS (Astronaut Photograph) of the atoll. The External Links section now lists links to the appropriate posts/image/article in EVS Islands, Astronaut Photography and Oceandots.com. Any other links of value would be added, but the first three will always be included.

In my opinion, these changes gives the article a more respectable look and the additional image/map content provides the reader with important spatial information. So far I've modified Wikipedia articles for Aratika, Apataki, Arutua and Tikehau Atolls. I believe what I've done is good for Wikipedia and good for EVS Islands. You know - Win / Win! What do you think?