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Lebanon
Pager Explosions
An electronics manufacturer in Taiwan said Wednesday that a company based in Hungary made the pagers bearing its brand that were used by members of the militant group Hezbollah and exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday. At least 12 people were killed, and more than 2,750 others were injured in the blasts. The scale suggests a complex supply-chain attack, with explosive devices integrated into thousands of pagers. In a statement Wednesday, the Iran-backed Hezbollah said there would be a “severe reckoning” over the blasts, blaming Israel. Israel and Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and opposes Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip, have been engaged in cross-border attacks since last October, displacing thousands of people in both countries.
This map depicts the locations of pagers which exploded in a suspected Israeli attack. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: L‘Orient Today
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Bolivia-Peru
Wildfires in the Western Amazon
Record-breaking fires continue to burn in the Amazon rainforest due to human activity and drought. More than 7.4 million acres (3 million ha) of rainforest are scorched in Bolivia. As the country scrambles for more firefighters and equipment, respiratory health concerns have arisen with widespread smoke. In Peru, persistent wildfires have affected thousands of people since July, but in the last two weeks, 10 people have died as a result along with hundreds of livestock animals and wildlife. Clouds, smoke, and wind interfere with aircraft firefighting tactics, making the fires extremely difficult to control. If wildfires continue at this rate in the Amazon rainforest and along the Brazilian Pantanal wetland, their devastation could release 20 years of global carbon emissions and widely threaten the biodiversity in Earth’s largest rainforest.
This map depicts the protected and unprotected areas of the Amazon rainforest, home to a significant portion of the world’s biodiversity, wetlands, and freshwater. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Reuters
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Australia
Rings on Earth Made by Asteroids
A new study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, shows Earth may have had a ring similar to that of Saturn. The ring might have formed roughly 466 million years ago and is hypothesized to be the remains of a large asteroid tugged apart by tidal forces. The ring would have cast a shadow across the equator by blocking sunlight, while also having a cooling effect on the Earth. According to geological records, the Ordovician period (485 million to 443 million years ago) was the period of Earth’s history with the most meteorite impacts. For this study, scientists mapped out the positions of 21 Ordovician impact craters and all of them were within 30 degrees of the equator. This crater alignment is how they deduced the ring hypothesis.
This map depicts the 21 Ordovician craters and their locations. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: The Torres Strait lies between Australia and what island?
A: New Guinea
The Torres Strait, also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is 93 miles (150 km) wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland. To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the Spanish navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606. The islands of the Torres Strait have been inhabited by humans for at least 2,500 years and possibly much longer. Their maritime-based trade and interactions with the Papuans to the north and the Australian Aboriginal communities have maintained a steady cultural diffusion among the three societal groups, dating back thousands of years.
Source
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Q: What island is widely known as the Hawai’i of Japan?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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