The new upgrade to Google Earth makes it possible for anyone to dive deep into the oceans of our planet. On Monday the search engine kingpin unveiled Google Earth 5.0, one of the most ambitious upgrades to the company's popular satellite imaging and mapping service since its introduction in June, 2005.

The new version of Google Earth allows users to mouse around under and over the seas, click on video clips of hydrothermal vents, read up on which seafoods are being harvested unsustainably, look at marine dead zones and sanctuaries and the like.

Moreover visitors can create their own narrated, illustrated tours of a neighborhood, scuba excursion or honeymoon. They can also now visually scroll through time, backtracking through sequences of satellite-imagery to see how coasts, forests, cities and other features of the planet are changing under the expanding imprint of ever more people eager for ever more stuff.

Nevertheless, there are authorized scientists behind the ambitious project: "The Marine Science Institute at UCSB played a key role in providing scientific guidance, intriguing content, and innovative web-based graphics for the Marine Protected Area (MPA) layer of Ocean in Google Earth," said Steven Gaines, director of the Marine Science Institute (MSI). MSI worked as part of a group called the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO).

Google also worked closely with Sylvie Earle, an oceanographer and explorer-in-residence at National Geographic, to create the Ocean features.
Google Earth users could already turn the satellite cameras around and aim them at the sky instead of the planet to explore the heavens, but in the latest rollout, Google has increased the amount of detail available for users to explore Earth's closest neighbour, Mars.