She’s been described as a hybrid of Indiana Jones and Google Earth. Now archaeologist Sarah Parcak—who pioneered the use of satellite imagery to discover lost cities and buried ruins—has an ambitious plan to use technology and crowdsourcing to protect remnants of the ancient world.

Today Parcak launches GlobalXplorer°, an online tool that’s part of a coordinated global effort to use technology to spur discovery and outpace destruction.

“Archaeologists can’t do this on their own,” says Parcak, who estimates that only one percent of the world’s archaeological sites have been identified, let alone explored and studied. “If we don't go and find these sites, looters will.”

Parcak, a National Geographic Fellow and founding director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at