The most recent Google Earth dataset update (see previous post) includes a good chunk of South Georgia, including Stromness bay and Grytviken, where favorite explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton lies buried. (Turn on the Google Earth Community layer in Google Earth for links to photos.) This new update also provides new context to one of my all-time favorite KMZ files: the georeferenced account of Shackleton’s 1914-1917 expedition.

On a side note: Now that very accurate imagery has replaced the base layer for a portion of South Georgia, Google Earth Community (GEC) placemarks in the region are not as precise as they could be. One possible way of helping these placemarks become more accurate is to let authors reposition them inside Google Earth, just as we do with our personal placemarks.

Such a solution would likely take some heavy lifting by Google behind the scenes, however, though it would turn the posting-to-GEC process much more into something like a geospatial public Google Notebook. Imagine a way of toggling your Google Earth placemarks between private, public, and “for GEC”, with people being able to subscribe to your public ones. That would turn Google Earth into quite the collaborative tool.