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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

«Face of the Island»

As with anywhere, this island has a few geological shapes that by chance resemble something recognizable. It's human nature to try to see faces in places there are none, this phenomenon is called pareidolia.

Here's one example from the topographical maps around here. Notice the names of the points: Brow Point, Nose Point, and Chin Point. This picture was taken aboard the Taku Alaska ferry on May 28th, 2009.
Topographical map of Brow Point, Nose Point, and Chin Point.

Click image to view full.

Here's a satellite view of the same place in an embedded Google map:

That's just a small area of the much larger Revillagigedo Island, the very island that I live on and hosts the town of Ketchikan, Alaska. Random fact: it's the 12th largest island in the United States, with an area of 1,063.65 square miles and 309 miles of coastline.

The town is exactly South of this on the map, if you look far enough.

5 comments:

  1. it lookes like he has a beard

    see even the land worships man.

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  2. Your post got me starting to read up a little about Ketchikan - I see the largest collections of standing totem poles are in the area - is that right? That would make some fascinating photos.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Bunc: Yes, that's true. Mainly in Saxman and Totem Bight. Maybe it's because I grew up here, but I've never seen what the big deal is with totem poles.

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  4. The "mouth" looks awfully circular on the google photo. Is that volcanic, or meteoric... *zooms in* ...or just more pareidolia. Not really that circular after all.

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  5. @ Nathaniel: Probably more pareidolia. Most of this area has been shaped by ice age glacier activity. Although there are a few volcanic hot spots scattered around, and we're real close to a fault line, so upheaval through plate tectonics has also shaped the area.

    ReplyDelete

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