This is a fantastic detailed animated and interactive data visualization of the world's Global Shipping Traffic.

You can see movements of the global merchant fleet over the course of 2012, overlaid on a bathymetric map. You can also see a few statistics such as a counter for emitted CO2 (in thousand tonnes) and maximum freight carried by represented vessels (varying units).

The merchant fleet is divided into five categories, each of which has a filter and a CO2 and freight counter for the hour shown on the clock. The ship types and units are as follows:

Container (e.g. manufactured goods): number of container slots equivalent to 20 feet (i.e. a 40-foot container takes two slots)Dry bulk (e.g. coal, aggregates): combined weight of cargo, fuel, water, provisions, passengers and crew a vessel can carry, measured in thousand tonnesTanker (e.g. oil, chemicals): same as dry bulkGas bulk (e.g. liquified natural gas): capacity for gases, measured in cubic metresVehicles (e.g. cars): same as dry bulk

The map was created by Kiln based on data from the UCL Energy Institute (UCL EI)