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Nigeria
130 Kidnapped Children Released
The remaining 130 schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State in November have all been released, with the Nigerian government confirming that all abducted pupils are now free. Hundreds of students and staff were taken in November when armed bandits stormed St. Mary’s Private Catholic School. Less than 48 hours after the abduction, around 50 students escaped. Earlier this month, the Nigerian government announced security forces had rescued another 100 of the victims, leaving 130 students still held captive until they were confirmed released on Sunday. The November abduction was the latest in a wave of armed groups targeting vulnerable civilian populations, particularly schools, and carrying out mass kidnappings for ransom.
This map depicts the location of St. Mary’s School in Niger State, Nigeria, where the kidnapping occurred. Click on the map to learn more.
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United States
Brown Shooting Suspect Dead
The only known suspect in the December 13 shooting at Brown University and the murder of an MIT professor has been found dead. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente is believed to be responsible for the shooting at Brown that killed two students and wounded nine others, then to have travelled to Brookline, Massachusetts two days later to murder MIT professor Nuno Loureiro. The case initially left investigators baffled, with the connection between the Brown shooting and the murder not being apparent. The break in the investigation came when an anonymous tipster on Reddit described his encounter with Valente on Brown’s campus and the rental car Valente was driving. That car was later identified near the site of Loureiro’s murder, establishing the connection between the cases. Valente was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit in New Hampshire. Authorities say Valente had been a graduate student at Brown, and had studied alongside Loureiro at MIT.
This map depicts the locations of the movements of the alleged Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, including the location where he’s alleged to have murdered a former associate and where his body was found in a New Hampsire storage unit.
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Graphic Source: Newsweek
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World
Earth’s Seasons Change Unevenly
Using two decades of satellite data, scientists mapped how land ecosystems change through the year and found that Earth’s seasons do not follow a single global schedule. By observing vegetation cycles from space, the team created a world map of seasonal timing. The results indicate local areas are able to have significantly different seasonal timing of vegetation growth, precipitation, and biological activity. These variations can be found within the same hemisphere, at similar altitudes, or at the same latitude, and may determine the functioning of ecosystems and evolution of species. The map highlights areas where seasonal patterns are strongly misaligned, and many of these areas overlap with regions of high biodiversity. This study underscores the asynchrony of seasons as a powerful engine of evolution. Traditional climate models often rely on simplified notions of seasonal change, but this new data shows that to accurately predict the impact of climate change, it’s necessary to take local features into account.
This map depicts the two main drivers of land surface phenology (LSP) asynchrony, precipitation and temperature. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What country in the Americas is home to “rainbow mountains,” geological wonders known for colorful layers of different minerals?
A: Peru
The Peruvian mountain Vinicunca, known as “Rainbow Mountain,” is known as “Siete Colores,” or “Cerro Colorado” in Spanish. The mountain is located in the Vilcanota mountain range in the district of Pitumarca, in the province of Canchis, and presents this tonality due to the erosion of sedimentary stones. Vinicunca is an open book of Earth’s history, and each layer of minerals represents a distinct geological era, and its current exposure results from millions of years of tectonic movements and erosion. You can find pink, green, red, white, yellow, and purple colors among its layers. Its high Andean terrain is home to camelids like alpacas and vicuñas, a turquoise lagoon and a wide variety of fauna.
Source
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Q: What mountain chain is home to the southernmost surface ice accumulations in Europe?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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