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Northern Ireland
Circuit-Breaker Lockdown Imposed
Northern Ireland will go into a four-week “circuit breaker” lockdown in an attempt to curb the huge rise in COVID-19 infections there. The new measures will include the closures of pubs, restaurants, and schools and will last for at least four weeks. The Derry City and Strabane Council area has been experiencing the highest infection rate in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This map by PA Media uses data from the Northern Ireland Department of Health and shows the month-to-month increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases between September and October. The idea of a “circuit-breaker” lockdown is to interrupt the flow of the virus and allow time for a longer-term plan to be put in place. The shutdown requires people to sever contact with others outside their own household and shuts non-essential businesses. Several countries have already implemented “circuit-breaker” lockdowns to varying levels of success, including Israel, New Zealand, and Singapore.
This map depicts the weekly rate of new COVID-19 cases in Northern Ireland between September and October 2020. Click on the map to learn more.
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Japan
Aggression in East China Sea
Chinese Coast Guard ships entered Japanese sea territory near the Senkaku Islands over the weekend and have remained there for a record amount of time. The two ships tried to approach a Japanese fishing boat, and were repeatedly asked to leave by Japanese officials. This is the 21st time Chinese vessels have intruded into Japanese waters this year. On Tuesday, another Chinese ship was spotted just outside Japan’s territorial waters, in the contiguous zone. These aggressive acts by China to assert its dominance in the East and South China seas have been promoted by the idea that the islands they are trying to claim are Chinese territory, even though Japan has control of the Senkaku Islands.
This map depicts the location of the Senkaku Islands and the Chinese and Japanese territorial zones that overlap in the East China Sea. Click on the map to expand.
Click here to learn more about our upcoming Fall Symposium Geography 2050: The Future of the World Ocean.
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Graphic Source: Opindia
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Australia
Great Barrier Reef on the Decline
A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society journal reveal that coral populations in the Great Barrier Reef have been halved over the last three decades. The reef, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to thousands of species, is extremely vulnerable to changes in climate. Record-high temperatures in 2016 and 2017 led to mass coral bleaching without enough time in between to give the coral population a chance to replenish. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2019 that reefs could take over 15 years to totally recover, however a third bleaching happened earlier this year. The researchers say the decline is evident in both shallow and deep water, and action must be taken soon. Reefs make up less than 0.1 percent of the ocean floor, but are home to 25% of all marine fish species.
This map depicts the ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. Click on the map to expand.
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Q: Discovered in 1990, what is the largest cave in the world which also produces its own localized weather system?
A: Hang Sơn Đoòng
Located in the heart of the UNESCO-listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam’s Quang Binh province, Hang Sơn Đoòng is more than 200 m (650 ft ) high and with some places up to 503 m (1650 ft), tall enough to fit several forty-story skyscrapers standing upright. The cave is so large that it even has its own localized weather system and is home to several endemic species of flora and fauna. The cave also contains some of the tallest known stalagmites in the world, which are up to 70 m (229 ft) in height. Hang Sơn Đoòng was first discovered in 1990 by a local farmer. He noticed clouds and the sound of an underground river gushing from a large hole in the limestone but didn’t explore further, and its location was forgotten for 18 years until he rediscovered it in 2008.
Source
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Q: With an altitude of 5,100 meters above sea level, which city is the highest in the world?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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