The Mystery of the Grey Line

Some debate at the office this week after a mysterious light grey line appeared on Google Maps from the Salton Sea to Monterey Bay that ran right over Redlands. Nothing better than a mapping curiosity to divert attention from work. So what is it?

Here are a selection of the theories on the mile wide feature:

• mis-aligned administrative boundary...but there aren't any that shape or position nearby
• San Andreas fault...but it only matches part of the fault's position and why would it be symbolised like this?
• a little known boundary accidentally symbolised too large
• a planned new high-speed public transport rail link (huh? in California...c'mon!)
• a newly found subduction zone
• a pipeline (well, it does disappear under the San Bernardino mountains)
• a planned pipeline
• an irrigation ditch
• new river to drain what's left of the Salton Sea
• a spatial reality distortion zone that just happens to fall across Redlands (think about it...)

The answer, thanks to a friendly Google man in the know: probably a rendering bug. Simple. Back to work...fixing our own rendering bugs ;-)