There is a small area in south Germany which has cave systems that contain Pleistocene mammal fossils of international importance, as described in excellent paper by Wolfgang Ufrecht, 2008, in Z. Geomorph. N.F. Inspecting the general area, a Google Earth image made 3/6/2021 at 48º25'02"N, 9º13'16"E, (attached) shows hills of solid thick limestone containing a regular array of clints and grykes, which, by comparison with Apple Maps satellite photos of the area, appear to be entirely bogus. There are other features in the general area which appear to be steep dipping beds but on Apple Maps these are simply groves of trees. Are there other examples of seemingly deliberate false geology on Google Earth and what can be done about it?
Malcolm McClure
I hate to interrupt a new and significant geologic discovery, but what your seeing is a combination of 'layover' from the site being away from the satellite's earth track ( you can see the entire trunks of the trees from the crown to ground ), the season being winter with 'leaves off' and low sun angle and high latitude ( note the almost perfect north trending of the 'geological' features ) and especially, the traditional meticulous German forestry practices ( trees felled in same direction, thinned in almost a perfect distribution ), uniform height of the remaining trees in the stand. If you follow the shadows south, you'll see the layover reduce until your looking straight down on the tree.
What can be done about it? Better public education about remote sensing, but really, this one was a perfect convergence of orbital dynamics, optics, and human cultural practices - I just spend a lot of time looking down from space.
Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOp1UYbmp0Y
Thank you Michael John Patrick for your detailed and convincing response. Lower Carboniferous karst topography in 3D (attached) was noticed during fieldwork for my South Donegal Project, so I briefly considered the possibility that it might occur in the Upper Jurassic of South Germany. Your explanation will be a forewarning to others looking down from space
It might also be worth noting that the DEM (Digital Elevation Model) used for the terrain on Google Earth is mostly made up of data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) which outside of the USA have a sampling distance of 90m (30m in the USA).
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