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India-Maldives
Tension Over Tourism & Tweets
Calls in India for a boycott of tourism to the Maldives are growing following the suspension of three Maldivian government ministers for negative comments on social media about Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The ministers made the disparaging remarks after Modi visited the Indian island chain of Lakshadweep in an effort to promote domestic tourism. The economy of the Maldives is largely dependent on tourism, but it has gained increasing attention for its critical location in relation to shipping and trade through the Indian Ocean. While India has been the island country’s primary partner for years, its new president, Mohamed Muizzu, is seeking closer ties with China – choosing to visit Beijing over New Delhi for his first official state visit. The islands of Lakshadweep and the Maldives are part of the same island chain, but Lakshadweep has nothing close to the same infrastructure to support tourists as Maldives, leaving Indians to look further abroad for a beach vacation should they decide against Maldives.
This map depicts the Indian island region of Lakshadweep, which are seeing increased interest as a tourism destination for Indians in the midst of diplomatic tensions with the neighboring Maldives. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: India Today
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United States
Airplane Blowout over Portland
Alaska Airlines flight 1282 had a mid-air blowout when a plug covering a spot left for an emergency door tore off the plane as it flew 16,000 feet (4,800 meters) above Oregon. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated on Monday that warning lights were triggered on the new Boeing 737 Max 9 on three flights, two of which came on consecutive days before the incident. The company stopped flying the aircraft over the Pacific Ocean due to the warnings but continued to fly the plane over land. This blowout has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground 171 Max 9 planes worldwide. Loose parts have been found on multiple grounded Max 9 aircraft, raising concerns about the production process and quality control for the passenger planes. The FAA has announced new guidelines for carriers to complete more thorough inspections on door plugs and their components.
This map depicts the path of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which suffered a blowout soon after departing Portland, Oregon. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: BBC News
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Australia
Submerged Landmass Mapped
A vast, now-submerged landmass off of Australia’s coast may once have been capable of supporting up to 500,000 people, a new study published in Quarternary Science Reviews suggests. Between about 70,000 and 61,000 years ago, the northwest continental shelf stretched toward Indonesia and connected modern-day Australia’s northern regions of Kimberley and Arnhem Land, forming a land area slightly larger than Japan. The continental shelf was filled with rivers and streams, fresh and saltwater lakes, as well as a large inland sea. Sea level rises at the end of the last Ice Age, around 18,000 years ago, caused the supercontinent known as Sahul to be split into modern-day New Guinea and Australia, placing the continental shelf underwater.
This map depicts the now-submerged land of northwest Australia, which hosted a complex landscape, including an inland sea. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Broad-winged birds have been observed to specifically seek out what type of hydrologic feature to give them safer migration routes?
A: Straits
Large broad-winged birds rely on thermal columns of hot air rising from the ground to enable them to soar. Migratory species of broad-winged birds have great difficulty in crossing vast bodies of water, since thermals only occur over land, and these birds cannot maintain active flight for long distances. Seas present a major obstacle to soaring birds, which must cross at the narrowest points. Massive numbers of large predatory birds and storks pass through areas such as the Strait of Messina, Gibraltar, Falsterbo, and the Bosphorus at migration times. The Strait of Gibraltar, the strait that separates the African and European continents by only 9.3 mi (15 km) and connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, is a notable example. Over 30 million migratory birds in total, half a million of which are raptors, pass through this bottleneck on their way to and from their respective wintering grounds in Africa.
Source
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Q: What biologically diverse ecosystem is known as the “rainforest of the sea?”
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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