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Malaysia
Hunt for Missing Airliner Resumes
Malaysia says it will restart the deep-sea search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by December 30th, renewing hopes of answers more than a decade after the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in the United States and United Kingdom, will lead a 55-day seabed hunt in a targeted 5,800 square mile (15,000 square km) zone of the southern Indian Ocean under a “no find, no fee” deal that pays the company $70 million only if substantial wreckage is discovered. Earlier multinational missions scoured about 46,300 square miles (120,000 square km) of ocean and found only scattered debris. A 2018 investigation concluded the jet was manually turned off course but could not say by whom or why. Families of the passengers, most of whom were Chinese along with Malaysians, Australians, and others, have long pressed for renewed searches, arguing that only finding the wreckage can finally explain what happened and prevent similar disasters in the future.
This map depicts locations of the different search efforts carried out after flight MH370 disappeared in the Indian Ocean. Click on the map to learn more.
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United States
Immigration Applications Paused
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued new guidance yesterday pausing processing of immigration applications and halting new applications for citizens of 19 countries. The 19 countries named in the order were already under travel restrictions imposed in June. Applicants from the named countries who entered the country following the January, 2021, inauguration of former President Joe Biden will have their cases subject to a re-review process that could include new interviews to screen for potential security risks. The pause halts citizenship processes for applicants at all stages, including applicants who have passed the citizenship test and are now only awaiting a ceremony. The Trump administration imposed the new restrictions following the attack last week in Washington D.C. by an Afghan national that kiiled one National Guardsman and critically wounded another. The Department of Homeland Security has recently recommended expanding the countries under the travel restrictions to more than 30.
This map depicts the 19 countries under a travel ban imposed in June. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services just imposed a halt on all green card and citizenship processes for applicants from these countries. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: New York Times
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Nigeria
Battery Recycling’s Lead Risks
A new report has revealed extensive lead poisoning in workers and neighbors of Africa’s largest lead battery recycling facilities in Ogijo, Nigeria. As part of their investigation, the New York Times and the Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that promotes global health, tested seventy people living near the facilities in Ogijo. The tests found 7 of 10 people had harmful levels of lead in their blood. Every worker had been poisoned, and more than half the children tested in Ogijo had levels that could cause lifelong brain damage. Most people with high blood-lead levels had breathed in particles emitted by the factories. Lead is an essential element in car batteries, but mining and processing it is expensive, so companies have turned to recycling as a cheaper source of this hazardous metal. Nigeria is among the fastest-growing sources of recycled lead for U.S. auto companies. The study concludes the Nigerian government needs to move quickly to address lead poisoning and begin a comprehensive cleanup.
This map depicts the high lead levels found in samples near the Everest Metal lead smelter in Obijo, Nigeria. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What peninsula is home to the largest karst landmass in the Americas, where the dissolving of bedrock has created sinkholes, caves, and springs?
A: Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula karst aquifer is one of the most extensive karst aquifer systems on the planet. A karst aquifer is a groundwater system formed in soluble bedrock like limestone or dolomite, where flowing water creates a network of interconnected features like caves, sinkholes, springs, and disappearing streams. This transboundary aquifer system extends over an area of approximately 63,706 square miles (165,000 sq km) in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. This aquifer hosts large amounts of groundwater resources which maintain highly diverse groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Anthropogenic pollution of the aquifer has been increasing over the past few decades, owing to booming economic development, largely for tourism, and population growth on the Peninsula.
Source
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Q: What sea is home to the world’s oldest-known intact shipwreck, due to its anoxic (oxygen-depleted) deep water?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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