Breaking! Atlantis discovered on Google Earth (well, maybe)

Quick—fire up Google Earth on your PC, and find the following coordinates: 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W (hint: it's about 600 miles west of Morocco, deep in the Atlantic Ocean). Zoom in, and check out that rectangle on the ocean floor. Could it be … Atlantis?

That's what a squad of "Atlantic experts" are telling the Daily Telegraph, and indeed, the rough rectangle—complete with dozens of shaky grid marks carved into the ocean floor—is a surreal sight, at least to the untrained eye.

Apparently, the oddly shaped box marks "one of the most prominent places for the proposed location of Atlantis, as described by Plato," said New York State University historical archaeology curator Dr. Charles Orser (as reported by the Telegraph).

Amazing—so amazing, in fact, that the story touched off an online firestorm Friday morning, with the search term "Atlantis" ending up as a top trend on Twitter. So ... should we dispatch James Cameron and his team of IMAX-equipped submersibles to investigate?

Well, maybe not, says this party-pooping report from the Daily Mail.

Turns out the odd rectangle doesn't actually exist, according to a Google rep; instead, it's simply an "artifact of the data collection process," representing the criss-cross patterns of sonar-equipped boats scanning the ocean floor.

Uhhhh … "artifact of the data collection process"? Please. I smell a cover up!

Related:
Google Ocean: Has Atlantis been found off Africa? [Daily Telegraph]