Thanks Google, now I’ve got that annoying song Under the sea from The Little Mermaid stuck in my head.

You can do the same, just by taking a look at Google Earth’s latest addition. (Check out Climate Feedback last year on Google Earth’s climate-related updates). It’s a very cool update that allows you to scoot around under the sea, and take a look at the sea floor, or at least a representation of it based on seismic data. Can you guess what it’s called? Google marketing people have done themselves proud this time, yes, it’s called Google Ocean!

This Very. Exciting. News. has set the internet alight with stories about the project.

Sylvia Earle, oceaneer extraordinaire introduces the project in a video neatly slotted in at the Guardian, and a great quote of hers is highlighted by Deep Sea News: “Anyone can discover in a few minutes what took me 50 years to understand.” DSN are in turn highlighting the Google Ocean live blogging epic by Danny Sullivan.

The application allows you to spin the globe round, take your pick of underwater treasure you want to find, and zoom in (or dive down) to check out how the land lies. It’s neat, and the Googlers have added tidbits of information about some of the features you might see.

The data has come from a load of research institutes, and the EU is also claiming a stake in the project.

Take a peek, but look out for the vampire squid, apparently lurking there somewhere…

Image: screenshot from Google Earth/Ocean/Mars/Sky/Etc