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Canada
Truckers Protest COVID Rules
A convoy of tractor-trailer trucks arrived in the Canadian capital of Ottawa over the weekend, as the truckers joined thousands of others to protest vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions put into place by the Trudeau government. In western Canada, another group of truckers has blocked a major border crossing with the United States between Alberta and Montana. One of the COVID-19 measures that sparked this round of protests is a requirement for unvaccinated drivers to quarantine after returning home from crossing the U.S.-Canada border. The demonstration highlights the contentious nature of the government’s pandemic response and may exacerbate on-going supply chain issues, with as many as 16,000 unvaccinated truckers off the road.
This map depicts where truckers are blocking a busy border crossing in Southern Alberta. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Daily Mail
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Ecuador
Oil Spill in Amazon Rainforest
Heavy rains in Ecuador caused a rockfall late Friday evening that split a crude oil pipeline privately owned by OCP Ecuador. The affected area spanned 226,000 sq ft (21,000 m) and mostly caused damage in areas of the Cayambe Coca national park. OCP has stopped pumping crude oil, but residue from the spill has already contaminated the Amazon’s Coca River according to local communities. The OCP pipeline can transport up to 450,000 barrels a day from the Amazon to shipping ports on the Pacific Ocean, but it had been operating on a more limited capacity and this is not the first time it has ruptured. The government began legal actions against OCP Ecuador yesterday, demanding a detailed investigation to measure the spill’s impact.
This map depicts the pipeline in Ecuador that ruptured on Friday, causing a spill in a protected area of the Amazon Rainforest. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Barron’s
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United States
Longest Recorded Lightning Bolt
A horizontal lightning flash that reached 477 miles (768 km) across the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi in April 2020 has been confirmed as the longest ever recorded. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the previous record of almost 441 miles (709 km) was set in Brazil on Halloween night in 2018. The WMO also verified an entirely separate lightning record for the lightning flash of greatest duration, a 17.102 second strike over Uruguay and Argentina in June 2020. WMO’s findings were published today in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
This map depicts the satellite image of the April 2020 lightning flash which, at 477 miles long, was confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization as the longest ever recorded. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Which American states exist today due to territory gained by the Louisiana Purchase?
A: Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Louisiana.
In 1803, the U.S. purchased 530,000,000 acres of territory from France for $15 million. The purchase enabled much of the American western landscape today. Originally owned by Spain but bought by France in 1800 under Napoleon, Americans in the western territories became apprehensive of the control over New Orleans by the increasingly powerful French. While Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and Robert Livingston were preparing military plans in case of conflict, the French army was falling to yellow fever in the Caribbean colony of St. Domingue. Napoleon gave up on his plans for Louisiana and surprised Monroe and Livingston by offering the entire territory for $15 million. President Jefferson was hesitant as he strictly adhered to the letter of the Constitution, however decided to forgo legal interpretation to validate the purchase, which contributed to much of today’s principles of ‘implied powers’ within the federal government.
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Q: Where can you find this seemingly perfect circular underwater sinkhole, about 410 ft (125 m) deep, the world’s largest natural formation of its kind?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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