I happened to recognise Brian’s picture of a section of the Richat Structure in Mauritania straight away, so here I am hosting this excellent geological competition.

Where on earth is this place? To find out, get to Google Earth and get searching. Brian talked about how recent WoGEs have been found quickly, so I’ve zoomed down quite a lot.

As always, the goal here is to name the location and describe the geology. The winner gets to host the next WoGE. See complete rules here, hosted by Felix on his blog. I do not invoke the Schott rule. Get looking!

I won Felix’s WoGE #342 only after he made some rather broad hints, which meant this was more of a Google search solution than a Google Earth one, if you know what I mean.

If you don’t, welcome! You have found a fabulous way of wasting time whilst marvelling at the beauty of the earth’s surface. Your mission is to look at the picture below, find the same picture in Google Earth and claim your prize! You do this by logging the location in the comments, along with some remarks on the geology of the area. Your prize is to choose and host the next picture (if you don’t have a blog, not a problem). There is more information about the game available. No Schott rule, so old lions can start tucking into the challenge right away.

I’ve picked a large image so I hope this won’t be too difficult. A hint: this image is not of England (even though we are currently suffering a drought).

Time for a clue, I think. Here’s a view of the same area from another angle.

Christoph’s lovely view of fractal patterns in the Scheldt estuary took a while to find, but his hint made me think of European estuaries and I happened to start in the West….

I’ve given up guessing how hard my Where on Google Earth pictures are going to be to find so I’ve not much to say about it, for the moment. Schott Rule does apply, in case this one is easy to get. If you don’t know what the Schott Rule is, you don’t need to worry about it.

Rules are best expressed here, but in summary, look at the entire Earth’s surface until you find the area shown in this picture. Then find out about its Geology. Then add the location and Geological description in the comments.

It’s nearly been a fortnight, so time to drop some subtle hints, I think. An interesting fact: a mate of mine found this within half an hour, but doesn’t want to claim the credit. Also he had an advantage: his PhD field area was near Ronda. NB see Felix’s comment below, he’s on the right lines.

Hint #2, here is a screenshot of an area of the world where the same rocks can be found (but not on the surface). Once you find the main picture, you’ll find it’s a classic.

It took a while to get Matthew’s WoGE 323. He put up a view of some sort of volcanic feature and highlighted that there was a vineyard in the area. I’d spent some time in Germany, France and New Zealand before swinging over to California. With the Google Maps volcano layer on it didn’t take long to zoom into the right area.

So, on with the game! Rules are best expressed here, but in summary, look at the entire Earth’s surface until you find the area shown in this picture. Then find out about its Geology. Then add the location and Geological description in the comments.

Here it is. North is straight up, in the usual fashion. Bonus points* to anyone who can link the area to Johnny Depp.

*Bonus points have no monetary value. They can’t be exchanged for any good or services at all.