Google Earth's Timelapse Project Chronicles Planet's Changing Surface

In a monumental compilation of millions of never publicly available satellite images comprising trillions of pixels of data, Google and TIME Inc. have released their Timelapse project, a stunning portrayal of nearly 30 years of satellite images, stitched together to show the Earth like it has never been seen before.

Timelapse paints a telling picture of how Earth has changed over the last 29 years offering a look at deforestation, increasing populations, expanding cities, diminishing bodies of water and other changes to the planet.

Google and TIME used data obtained from more than 2 million Lansat satellite images. Orbiting the Earth once every 85 minutes since 1972, the NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey's Landsat orbiters have snapped millions of images of Earth.

The Timelapse project uses Landsat images from 1984 to 2012, stitching together the world's first multi-decade, animated time lapse of the Earth.

The project is a testament to the power of collective human capability, a remarkable union of technology, journalism and government.

Anyone curious to see how their part of the world can go to earthengine.google.org and type in any place on Earth to see the 29-year time lapse. Thirty years is the blink of an eye in Earth time, so many parts of the world views in Timelapse are not very revealing, but Google did a fine job of highlighting some of the more fascinating timelapses, including the growth of Las Vegas, the drying of Lake Urmia in Iran, the coastal expansion at Dubai and Amazon deforestation in Brazil.