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France
Olympics Open in Paris
The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad opened Friday in Paris in a spectacle designed to celebrate the host city alongside the athletes. While Olympic opening ceremonies have traditionally been held in a central stadium, the organizers of the Paris games held a parade along the River Seine, with a flotilla of boats carrying performers and athletes along a 3.7 mile (6 km) route past some of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. Similarly, the athletic competitions themselves will take place throughout the city in venues giving spectators the chance to enjoy the atmosphere of the French capital. After years of observed waste in Olympic host cities building purpose-built sports facilities that sat largely unused following the games, Paris has built only a few new buildings and is holding many competitions at temporary venues, including beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower. Over 10,000 athletes from 206 nations are anticipated to participate in the 2024 games, which will close on Sunday, August 11.
This map depicts the aquatic parade route of the Summer Olympics opening ceremony held Friday night, passing by numerous Parisian landmarks along the River Seine. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: BBC
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Mali
Mali Rebel Coalition Attack
A coalition of rebels in Mali claimed it killed dozens of Russian Wagner mercenaries as well as Malian government soldiers in an attack near Tinzaouatene, in the northern part of Mali. In response, the Malian army on Friday night said two soldiers had died and ten had been injured in a rebel onslaught that also destroyed two pickup trucks and two armored vehicles. According to the army, its forces destroyed multiple vehicles and killed about twenty rebels. Mali has been racked by violence for 12 years. The current government took over in a coup in 2022 and has cut ties with Mali’s former allies in West, opting instead to partner with Russia, which provides Wagner mercenaries as a paramilitary force for the state.
This map depicts Tinzaouatene, in the northern part of Mali, where rebels attacked a group of Russian Wagner and Malian government soldiers. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: TV5 Monde
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United States
Dried Great Salt Lake Emits GHGs
According to a new study in the journal One Earth, 4.1 million tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases were emitted by the dried lakebed of the Great Salt Lake in 2020 alone, constituting an approximately 7% increase to Utah’s human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The research team measured carbon dioxide and methane emissions from exposed sediments of Great Salt Lake, Utah, from April to November 2020, and compared them with aquatic emissions estimates to determine the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions associated with desiccation. Ultimately, these data indicated greenhouse gas emissions from the dried lakebed were strongly and positively related to warm temperatures. This research suggests drying lakebeds are an overlooked but potentially significant source of greenhouse gases, which may be contributing to climate change feedback loops.
This map depicts historic full lake levels and bays (1985) as well as recent low levels (2022) with extensive exposed lakebed sediments in Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Sites sampled for greenhouse gas emissions are shown in the 2022 image. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What chief river of the northern Levant is nicknamed “the Rebel River” because it flows unusually northward?
A: Orontes River
The Orontes River in southwestern Asia drains a large part of the northern Levant into the Mediterranean Sea. It begins in Lebanon, flowing northwards through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea through Turkey. The river has long served as a boundary that separated Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon. Largely unnavigable for most of its 250-mile (400-km) length, its valley serves as a regional roadway and an important source of irrigation water, particularly in Syria. The Arabic name العاصي (al-‘Āṣī) is derived from the ancient Axius. The word coincidentally means “insubordinate” in Arabic, which folk etymology ascribes to the fact that the river flows from the south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region which flow southward.
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Q: The 438,000-acre (177,000 ha) Okefenokee Swamp straddles the border between which two US states?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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