Following the face-on-Mars:

[zotz]

From an article on El Reg, we have the Face on Earth - in the Peruvian desert, in fact.

Blatant fake, you reckon? Well, maybe. Here it is again, though, on a different site. Looks like the same photo, but it rules out anyone at Google having a laugh. I don't suppose anyone can find a different photo of that area?

Comments

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Maybe the Nazcas went through an impressionist phase?

[zotz]

Are there native South American sunflowers?

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Snap!

[zotz]

Wild, isn't it?

It'd be nice to see some definitely-different shots, to see if it changes over time.

[lovingboth]

Memory is telling me google get their pics from them.

Humans are extremely good at spotting faces. If two 'eyes', one 'nose' and a 'mouth' are present, the brain goes "FACE! FACE!! FACE!!!" even if there isn't, in fact, one there. Look just above the 'eye' on the right - there's another, smaller, 'face' there, looking to the right of the image.

It'll be like the Martian 'face' - with the sun at a different angle, the illusion vanishes.

I don't think I've got high enough resolution DEM of that area to stick it in a landscape renderer to test this though.

[zotz]

That would be interesting. Do you think it's just relief, or would the sand/soil colour be involved?

[lovingboth]

Zooming in - it does look like ground colour rather than a shadow effect.

[(Anonymous)]

using google earth, it looks more like soil colour than relief. that bit's pretty flat, with moutains to the north...

anonymouseth
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[lovingboth]

If you zoom in, the effect lessens with both - the smaller one almost vanishes with one zoom and goes entirely with two, while the larger one is going with two.

[darkstones.livejournal.com]

Globeexplorer shows it too - slightly different photo, but same angle.

http://imageatlas.globexplorer.com/ImageAtlas/view.do

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Evident in Google Earth, but not Nasa World Wind.

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.swinehood.com/face.png