So what exactly is this?

So I was just looking around in Google Earth, when I find something.... weird. I don't know what it is, its perfectly circular and nature doesn't do perfectly circular. Anyway, here it is:


Coordinates 52°50'29.99"N, 0°14'35.34"E

So, any thoughts? Things to note are that according to Google earth's altitude data, there is only about 8 metres ASL prominence on that.. thing. Also, it measures it to be 200m across, with the middle bit 45 across. Also, to back up the altitude data there is almost no shadows on it.

Now, I know what you're thinking. It looks to be a very small Stratovolcano almost, doesn't it. Now, that is a) impossible for the area (no earthquake activity, ever pretty much), b) far too uniform to be natural (well, look at Rainier, or Kilauea, or heck, anything natural), c) no flows (well there aren't), d)no erosion on it (well, almost).

It's on the Ordnance Survey maps as well, but only at the 1:50,000 scale, where it only appears as a perfect circle. It doesn't appear on the more detailed 1:25,000 scale maps. So I am really rather confused about this.

The only similarly shaped things to this that I've found on the satellite images are the nuke test craters in Nevada. I could almost say this thing looks manmade.

Maybe I should email the BGS or OS people. They might know.

Edit, looking closer at the shadows makes it look like just a circular embankment with the middle the same mud as surrounds it. Interesting. that definitely makes it seem man made, but who'd be crazy enough to build an earthen ring on a tidal sandbank?

[edit on 17-12-2008 by apex]

[edit on 17-12-2008 by apex]

Wow, great find. I agree that the green embankment looks man made. In geology it is rare to find a perfect circle and there are no large ones. I am at a loss. Flourite mine? Malchite? It could be the glass made by a nuclear explosion, I forgot the name. I will have to see what is near it.

One thing near it (about 3 km west) is a large area which happens to be a military training area, complete with a beached ship for target practice by planes. Other than that, not much is nearby. Though there is another thing to the east a little way which also appears to impossibly jut out of the sea, which is rectangular. One idea I have would be to say it could be a sea defence from WW2, there are pillboxes all over the place on the nearby coastline. Other than that, it would only be wild uneducated guesses.

googlesightseeing.com...

they may help if you post it there. I love to do this sort of thing.

Hi:
I looked on "Wundermap" ,a Google map off shoot, and it appears that the area in question is submerged in water part of the time (Tidal?).
If you click on the "Map" version, it shows the area to be underwater, but the picture obviously is not. Hope this helps somewhat.

That is where an old light house once stood.

reply to post by Sliick

Thanks, I was about to call King's Lynn. I wonder why the foundation is so green?

reply to post by Sliick


Nice, but can't help but desire a reference for that. interesting though, quite an engineering feat to make something that size on a tidal area.

looks like the whatisits on the moon. Perfectly circular.

reply to post by apex


A green stereo speaker.

actually, a crater filled with a lake of heavy copper content is my second guess.

An impact crater with a volcano in the middle is my guess.

is this near Arizona SE ? looks like an old copper mine, from around the Mesa, Pheonix area........