[Coach_Owens87]

Hey Coach I took your advice and visited both Google Earth and Microsoft Terra Server as you suggested, I was expecting to see up to date, high quailty satellite images where you can get a close up view of mining sites accross Eastern Ky. and Southern WVa. as you claimed, but what I found was totally different. Maybe I done something wrong, but here's what I found, on Google Earth the mine areas were either colored white or they had a red tint covering the mine areas either way I could not tell anything about these areas if they were reclaimed or not, I tried to take a close up view of other areas (not colored or tinted) but the images became blurry at a distance I was still unable to tell anything about these photo's. You also mentioned that these photo's were up to date, when I noticed that areas that we mined in August 2003 were not shown on these maps, heck they hadn't even broke ground for the new Super Wal-Mart in Louisa when these photos were taken. I then pulled up Mircrosoft Terra Server and found that some of these photo's haven't been updated since 1990, I pulled up areas here in Eastern Ky. and the latest update I could find was 1995. Furthermore Terra Server is based on some satellite images and a lot of USGS (United State Geological Service) aerial photographs which were most likely flown over 25 years ago and at a very high altitude thus making it very difficult to view without special equipment.

P.S. you don't give me a hard time I love these little conversation we have, and I hope we can have many more of them in the future.

I can understand the problem with terra-server, they do have issues with out of date photos. I believe you can purchase a version with better photos, but im not for sure on that. Google earth is another story, their photos are up to date, they made a huge update last october, so most of their images are from that date.They have something called national memorial for the mountains, it's a special feature that gives some great details about specific mine sites in eastern ky and WV. It has markers to show all mine sites currently in progress. Since you know the mining industry you should be able to find some mines that you know are reclaimed, I viewed a few that are located around route 80 from hindman to hazard, I know some of these sites have been done for 10 years or more, and there is no sign of substantial reclamation.


Tinted photos Maybe you used a different version of the program than I did, but with my google earth I was able to get relatively close views of the sites, for example I could see plainly the sparse grass and trees planted at the Kayford mountain mine site in West Virginia.

I done some research and it appears google earth 3 had colored images, but with the 2006 updates, and the new version, google earth 4, the tinted images are replaced with high resolution images.

here is a link to some info on the program

http://earth.google.com/faq.html

Question 5 answers your question about the problems you occured. Even on the areas that you say are discolored you can plainly see that no reclamation has happened.


there is a feature on google earth called "National Memorial for the mountians", The memorial is run by ilovemountains.org, I know you will say it's a environmental site, but that doesnt matter, the photos they provide are real, and are not doctored. You can use this feature by going to the key features key on the left hand side, then go to global awareness.

Here is a link to the site which has a sample of how the program works. The photos on this page come after the late 06 updates, so go take a look.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/