Tour Ocean "Hope Spots" in Google Earth

Earlier today Google announced a new default layer for oceans in Google Earth. The new oceans layer includes hundreds of sites generated from data, images, and videos from organizations like National Geographic, NOAA, and dozens of others.

In the same announcement today, Google featured a new tour called Hope Spots in the Ocean Showcase. Hope Spots is a narrated tour of eight places around the world considered to be indicative of the health of the world's oceans and marine life. View the tour here or download it to view in Google Earth.














Applications for Education
The new and updated oceans layers and tours could be useful for anyone teaching marine biology and or oceanography. One of the things that I really like about using Google Earth and Google Maps in the classroom is that it provides a geographic context for whatever topic your students are studying.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Maps Labs - Try the Newest Options
View Glacier Melt in Google Earth
Quikmaps - Quickly Customize a Google Map