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France
Migrant Boat Collapse Kills 12
At least 12 people have died following the sinking of a migrant boat attempting to cross the English Channel from France Tuesday morning. The boat is reported to have launched from the French coastal town of Le Portel before it “tore apart” in challenging conditions. Initial reports said it carried at least 100 passengers, though that figure is still unconfirmed. Sixty-five people have been rescued. Of the 12 dead, 10 are women and girls. This incident brings the total known dead in English Channel migrant crossings this year to 30. Authorities in the United Kingdom criticized the criminal gangs who operate the crossings, making profits from carrying excessive numbers of passengers in often unseaworthy vessels.
This map depicts the frequent routes of boats making illegal crossings taking migrants across the English Channel from France to England, including the location where a vessel sank in rough seas yesterday morning, kiilling at least 12. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Yahoo! News
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China
China-Africa Summit Begins
Dozens of African leaders are converging on Beijing for the three-day Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, a key platform for China to engage with Africa that has previously seen Beijing make huge financial pledges to support big-ticket infrastructure projects. China has been Africa’s biggest trade partner for more than a decade and has extended loans of more than $182 billion to African nations between 2000 and 2023 for mega projects such as ports, railways, highways, and hydroelectric dams. African leaders are expected to push China to take more of their exports to diversify and address large trade deficits. China is expected to lobby for improved access to important minerals like lithium, copper, and cobalt, which it currently mines in several African countries. Beijing is also expected to push for more exports of its China-made products, particularly renewable energy products.
This map depicts debt-to-GDP ratios across African countries receiving financing through China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Bloomberg
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United Kingdom
Mass Extinctions by “Tag-Team”
In a new study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists have shown how a land-sea “tag-team” interaction millions of years ago during the breakup of supercontinent Gondwana led to a massive devastation of marine life. Their research has unearthed a new explanation for a string of severe environmental crises spurred by the seas becoming depleted of dissolved oxygen, called oceanic anoxic events (OAEs), which happened during the Mesozoic era, between 185 and 85 million years ago. The team found evidence that plate tectonics played a role, analyzing phosphorus released from basalt, a volcanic rock, on both the seafloor and continents. By using an Earth system model to simulate the effect of phosphorus pulses on ocean chemistry, they found it led to nutrient overloading which recreated the string of OAEs. This land-sea interaction created “dead zones” which effectively functioned as a “reset button” on the planet’s ecosystems.
This map depicts the global distribution of sedimentary deposits indicating oceanic anoxic events (OAE) in relation to plate boundary features. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: In 2023, what ecoregion in Brazil faced the most serious reduction in water?
A: Pantanal
South America’s largest country is facing the most severe drought in its recent history. Satellite images monitored by the Brazilian environmental institute MapBiomas showed in June that the Amazon and Pantanal regions were facing a serious reduction in water. The Pantanal biome dried up the most in 2023, recording a 61% decrease compared to the 1985 historical average. In the past week, record fires have been detected in the Cerrado Plateau, a tropical savanna, and the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, a biodiverse area packed full of different species of plants and animals. The Pantanal, located between the Amazon and Sao Paulo, lost some 1.2 million acres (600,000 ha) to the flames in June. Scientists said the Pantanal fires had been “40% more intense due to climate change.”
Source
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Q: The proposed country of Cascadia in the U.S. Pacific Northwest is defined by the watershed of what river?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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