A man has made an important discovery after noticing a gigantic 'scar' in the middle of the Australian outback on Google Maps.
Going through Google Maps or even Google Earth when bored is always an option, but sometimes, the seemingly pointless task provides some interesting discoveries.
And earlier this year, a caver was checking through satellite images of Nullarbor Plain, in southern Australia, when he came across an interesting find.
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The caver ended up finding a 'mysterious scar' drilled into the landscape, which left scientists 'intrigued' by the find and excited by the prospect of what's possible 'without the power of technology'.
Dr Matej Lipar, Adjunct Research Fellow in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said in the Daily Mail that the 'scar was created by a ferocious tornado that no one knew had occurred'.
The expert went on to explain how the effects of the tornado is a 'remarkable example of nature’s ferocity would have gone unnoticed'.
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The team decided to compare satellite imagery of the site over a period of several years, which helped them come up with a pretty certain finding.
In fact, scientists found that the tornado took place very recently, between 16 November and 18 November 2022.
Dr Lipar said: "It’s important for scientists to accurately predict tornadoes, so we can issue warnings to communities. That’s why the Nullarbor tornado scar was useful to study.
"The Nullarbor Plain is a remote, dry, treeless stretch of land in southern Australia.
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"The man who discovered the scar had been using Google Earth satellite imagery to search the Nullabor for caves or other karst features.
"Karst is a landscape underlain by limestone featuring distinctive landforms.
"The discovery of the scar came to the attention of my colleagues and I through the collaborative network of researchers and explorers who study the Nullarbor karst."
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He continued: "The scar stretches from Western Australia over the border to South Australia.
"It lies 20 kilometres north of the Trans-Australian Railway and 90 kilometres east-north-east of Forrest, a former railway settlement."
Dr Lipar paid the site a visit alongside some of his colleagues in May, where he was able to provide more context to the findings.
"It bears striking patterns called 'cycloidal marks', formed by tornado suction vortexes. This suggests the tornado was no ordinary storm but in the strong F2 or F3 category, spinning with destructive winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour," the expert added.
Topics: Australia, Nature, Science, Google Maps
Callum Jones