Perhaps it's possible to inquire with Google as to why certain images 
are obfuscated. In the case of Severnaya Zemlya, there's no shortage of 
research on the archipelago, including radar and visible-light imagery. 
Of course, there's also the time in 1967 when the US Coast Guard tried 
to circumnavigate the arctic with the Edisto and Eastwind icebreakers 
and was refused access to Proliv Borisa Vil'kitskogo, which may or may 
not having anything at all to do with it, who knows?

--Robert


Paige G. Andrew wrote:
> And I would guess that Russia is actively doing either preparations 
> for or actual drilling for oil, natural gas, or similar, because in 
> the past couple of years they have ramped up mineral explorations as 
> the Arctic ice retreats and has eyes on making as many claims as 
> possible.
>
> Paige
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"Chris Hanson" <[log in to unmask]>
> *To: *"[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> *Sent: *Friday, April 8, 2016 2:13:24 PM
> *Subject: *Re: These 20 Places Have Been Hidden from the Public by Google
>
>     Well, this was posted on April 1st but I did confirm that many of
>     the places are actually pixelated and/or obscured in google maps
>     ... I'm mostly curious about #3 the islands in Russia. Does anyone
>     know why that is obscured
>
>
> I would guess simply because nobody has bothered acquiring satellite 
> images of them because there's no interest in them.
>