Huge Google Earth 'Scar' unlocks secrets of dramatic weather system

A caver was searching Google Earth images of the Australian outback and was surprised to stumble across a mysterious scar scored into the land.

After some investigating, scientists found that the scar spotted on the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia was caused by a strong tornado.

Now, we all hear about tornados causing destruction across the Great Plains region in the US - as many as 1,200 per year occur in the country on average but tornados also occur in Australia too.

(In fact, the only place in the world that hasn't recorded evidence of tornados is Antarctica.)

Admittedly, they are not as common Down Under with around 30-80 tornados on average per year.

BOM

But back to the scar, which was measured to be 11 kilometers and reached 250 metres wide, it is thought a powerful tornado in the F2 or F3 category occurred there with winds above 200kmh.

Matej Lipar, Adjunt Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University and his colleagues were intrigued by the mystery scar and upon further analysis, were able to calculate the duration of the tornado and the direction it moved in.

"The tornado probably lasted between seven and 13 minutes. Features of the scar suggest the whirling wind within the tornado was moving in a clockwise direction," he told MailOnline.

Google

"We also think the tornado moved from west to east – which is consistent with the direction of a strong cold front in the region at the time."

Using satellite images from over several years to compare, the team determined the tornado occurred between November 16 and 18, 2022.

This is just one of three tornados recorded in the Nullarbor Plain.

The tornado luckily didn't damage any homes due to how remote the area is and the scar on the ground can still be seen 18 months after the tornado due to the dry landscape.

These findings were recently published in the Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science.

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