The town of Progreso, Mexico, sits on a limestone shelf that falls away extremely gradually as it gets further out to sea. As a result, when they built a pier to allow cruise ships to dock here, it had to be long. Really long.

Measuring a phenomenal 6.5 kilometers (4 miles), this is the world’s longest pier.

The original pier was completed in 1942, and despite being little more than a two-lane highway, is actually quite nice looking seen from the beach. In this satellite shot you can clearly see where the original construction ends, and the more recent one begins.¹

Cruise ships dock here for a day or two to allow the tourists to visit some of the nearby archaeological sites, and we can see there’s one berthed here at the moment. Tourists need to take a bus to shore, which takes nearly 10 minutes!

The pier also plays a major part in the local container industry - we can see loads of them stacked on the pier - and there’s also a tanker here just now too.

For more long piers, see our previous posts on England’s 2.1 km Southend Pier (the world’s longest pleasure pier) and Australia’s 1.8 km Busselton Jetty².

Thanks to cboone and Michael.

A strange procession is moving through the streets of Los Reyes Acozac in Mexico - the fuselages of not one, but two aircraft!

As they’re roughly 100 feet in length, the giant plane bodies could be for Boeing 737s - but what would they be doing here? 737 fuselages are usually made in Wichita, Kansas, so it’s a bit of a mystery why they would be in convoy through Mexico.

Discussions on the Google Earth community suggest the fuselages could actually be for McDonnell Douglas DC9/10s - which went out of production decades ago - so maybe they’re being scrapped somewhere round here?

If they are scrap, hopefully they won’t be abandoned on the road as happened to one Boeing 737 making its way through Mumbai traffic last year…

Thanks to carmedic.

In the past few years the competition has been hotting up to build the world’s largest passenger vessels, resulting in huge craft which would dwarf ships like RMS Titanic. Today we’re going to take a look at some of the World’s Biggest Passenger Ships!

Floating off the coast of Conzumel, Mexico is MS Freedom of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world which weighs in at 154,407 tons and is capable of carrying 4370 passengers! Guests are entertained by 3 huge pools, shops, pubs and even a climbing wall. If you think your car has poor fuel efficiency, take heart in the fact that this behemoth uses 12.8 tonnes of fuel… per hour!

Freedom of the Seas was built in the Aker yards in Turku, Finland, between 2004 and 2005, and in 2007 her sister ship, MS Liberty of the Seas, was also completed there to exactly the same specification. Microsoft Live Maps’ birds-eye feature has caught the construction in action, and it’s extraordinary to see the work that goes into a ship of this size. Check out the helipad on the bow!

(Warning: Live Maps are still not compatible with Safari I’m afraid!)

Until Freedom and Liberty became the largest passenger ships in the world, the title was held by Cunard’s famous RMS Queen Mary 2¹. At 148,528 gross tons she’s only slightly lighter, but takes the distinction of being the longest at 345 metres, as well as the highest and also the widest! Here she is docked in New York City.

Moored in Florida is one of Disney’s own fleet of two ships, Magic and Wonder. The two ships are almost identical, but I have it on good authority that this is Wonder. At 964 feet these are no record breakers, but I thought they were worthy of a mention!

The ships generally cruise the Caribbean, where one of their main stops is one of Disney’s own private islands, ‘Castaway Cay‘.

On board the ships there are some rather unique features for the 2400 passengers to enjoy, such as computer simulators to let you imagine you are guiding the ship, spas, and a whopping 24×14 foot LCD TV attached to the front funnel of the ship. However, what wins it for me is the main swimming pool, which of course is shaped like Mickey Mouse!

Read more about Freedom of the Seas, Queen Mary 2 and the Disney Cruise Line at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Joao Almeida, Rob B, Jolo Quina, Tim, Chris, adam wanderman, greg and orchjoe.

In the past we’ve posted several people’s submissions of what they thought were whales, which might have been captured on the satellite imagery of Google Earth whilst nearing the surface of the open sea.

In most cases however, our ever-attentive readers have presented compelling evidence that these submissions couldn’t actually be whales.

So when Rick Edwards directed us just west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to see two separate pods of three whales, you could imagine we would be a little sceptical. However, the apparent visibility of tailfins on the larger ‘whales’ piqued our interest somewhat…

We pressed a little further, checking possible species, sizes, breeding patterns and migratory behaviour, and… well, we wouldn’t have posted it if we didn’t think there was a strong possibility this could be the only definite sighting of whales out at sea¹ on the whole of Google Earth.

In the comments of this morning’s Underwater Explosion post reader Julian found this great large type.

Apparently made of trees planted in the water, the word may well be “DUMAC” or Ducks Unlimited de México.

Despite the title, Ducks Unlimited aren’t about promoting a world overrun with an unlimited number of Ducks. They are in fact a pro-hunting organisation, who’ve been accused of breeding ducks just to shoot them.

Thanks: Julian & EAF

Could these be the waves from an underwater explosion? Found in a lagoon in Acapulco, the circular waves could be caused by any number of different events.

However, the waves are about 8m peak to peak, and still can be clearly seen 400m to the South East, implying that this is more than simply someone jumping in the water!

On the Google Earth forum it has been suggested this may be the result of a small earthquake, or perhaps an underwater explosion to remove reef rock below.

I think the explosion idea holds more weight, but it still seems unlikely. Is there anyone more qualified on such matters who can answer either way? Or at least someone out there with a wild conspiracy theory?

Thanks: Panarimi

Check out this incredible image of a helicopter skimming the surface of the pacific, several miles off the coast of Baja California Norte, Mexico. How cool is the disturbance in the water from the helicopter’s downwash!

On the shores of the San Ignacio Lagoon in South Baja California, Mexico, we find a fittingly enormous geoglyph of a female gray whale and her calf.

The San Ignacio Lagoon is part of the Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve which is Mexico’s most recent wildlife refuge. This giant drawing is probably part of the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaíno, where Grey Whales and many other species live and breed, undisturbed and in a protected environment.

Thanks to Julio Izquierdo.