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Iran
US Confirms Israel Airstrike
US officials have confirmed Israel carried out an airstrike against Iran in the early hours of Friday morning. The air defense system in Tabriz was triggered and three explosions were heard near the major military base close to the central city of Isfahan. Iranian officials have played down the attack, attributing the explosions to air defense systems shooting down small drones. Israel officials did not comment on the attack directly and Iranian officials and state media have not addressed the origins of the “suspicious objects”. Iranian officials have indicated Iran has no intention of responding to the event. The attack comes less than a week after the first-ever direct attack on Israel by Iran, a response to a previous Israeli airstrike on an embassy in Syria which killed several Iranian officials on April 1.
This map depicts locations targeted by Israel’s airstrike on Friday morning. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: The Guardian
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China
Cities Face Subsidence Crisis
A new study conducted by Chinese scientists shows a large number of cities in China are sinking, putting a significant portion of the nation’s rapidly urbanizing population at risk in the coming decades. Out of 82 major Chinese cities, about half of them are considerably subsiding, meaning the land they are on is sinking relative to their surroundings. The phenomenon accelerates local sea level rise and exacerbates flooding, which has major implications for urban infrastructure. Nearly one third of China’s urban population resides in the sinking areas, and scientists estimate that about a quarter of the country’s coastal land will be below sea level in the next hundred years. Tens of millions of people are already at risk, but this number could grow to hundreds of millions if China’s cities continue to grow in population and subside at their current rate. The study, which measured how much cities subsided between 2015 and 2022, is the first time scientists have used satellite data to measure how much cities are sinking in China.
This map depicts areas in China that are experiencing the most subsidence. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: BBC
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United Kingdom
Ichthyosaur Fossil Discovered
A set of fossilized jawbones belonging to a new ichthyosaur species has been discovered in Somerset. The new fossil follows two other ichthyosaur discoveries in the area between 2016 and 2020. In the region encompassing the Bristol Channel Severn Estuary, these fossilized remains date back 200 million years ago, to the late Triassic period. Much of the geology underneath the Somerset area includes outcrops of Triassic rocks, Jurassic rocks, as well as older surface strata of Devonian and Carboniferous rocks. This new discovery of fossilized jawbones has helped paleontologists determine the animal’s length as 82 feet long (25 meters long) and they have given it a new genus and species, Ichthyotitan severnensis.
This map depicts the distribution of Triassic rocks in the area around the Bristol Channel Severn Estuary, where three ichthyosaur fossils, also noted, have now been discovered so far. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What is the main river system of Ghana?
A: Volta River
The Volta River, the chief river system of Ghana, is formed from the confluence of the Black Volta and White Volta headstreams. It flows south into Ghana from the Bobo-Dioulasso highlands of Burkina Faso, discharging into the Gulf of Guinea. The Volta is the ninth largest African river by length but ranks second in volume at the continental level, just after the Congo River (or Zaire). Covering an area of 154,440 mi² (400,000 km²), the Volta Basin is divided between six West African states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Togo.
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Q: Where can you find the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Monday’s DailyGeo.
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