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Pakistan
Separatist Attacks Kill Dozens
Separatist militant attacks on police stations, railway lines, and highways in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, and retaliatory operations by security forces, have killed more than 60 people. This most widespread assault is part of a decades-long effort to force the secession of the resource-rich province. Balochistan borders both Iran and Afghanistan and is home to major China-led projects such as a strategic port and a gold and copper mine. Pakistan’s military said 14 soldiers and police were killed in fighting on a major highway, along with 21 militants. Local officials said at least 23 passengers were killed, with 35 vehicles set ablaze. Rail traffic with Quetta was suspended following blasts on a rail bridge linking the provincial capital to the rest of Pakistan. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) took responsibility for the attacks. Among BLA’s goals is the expulsion of China and independence for the province, which it says the central government unfairly exploits for its gas and mineral resources.
This map depicts the location of an armed attack in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Al Jazeera
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Iceland
Ice Cave Collapse Kills Tourist
An ice cave collapse in Iceland has left one tourist dead, one injured, and two missing. Just before three o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday, a group of about 25 tourists were being guided through ice caves in the Breidamerkurjokull glacier, an extension of the Vatnajökull glacier, before the cave collapsed onto them. Around 200 rescuers set out to find the two missing persons, but after dark, the attempt was put on hold because of difficult conditions. The harsh glacial terrain made it impossible for rescuers to transfer extra equipment and personnel, so they were forced to break through the ice by hand with chainsaws. The search for the two missing tourists has resumed today.
This map depicts to location of the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland where the ice cave is located. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: BBC
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Brazil – Cameroon
Dino Tracks Across the Atlantic
Paleontologists led by a team from Southern Methodist University uncovered matching sets of dinosaur footprints on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The tracks, discovered 3,700 miles (5,955 km) apart in Brazil and Cameroon, illustrate how the continents of South America and Africa were connected millions of years ago. Besides being nearly identical, the team found that the tracks were of a similar age, around 120 million years, based on geological evidence. At that time, South America and Africa were part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. Gondwana would have already been in the process of splitting starting around 20 million years before the tracks were made, but northeastern Brazil and the area of Africa along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea were still connected by a river valley. This valley served as a corridor where therapods like the ones that made the tracks would travel between what would become the two separate continents.
This map depicts the two locations on the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana where nearly identical dinosaur tracks of the same age were made, locations that would later become separated by 3,700 miles and the Atlantic Ocean as the continents of South America and Africa split off. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What continent is home to the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet?
A: South America
The Altiplano (Spanish for “high plain”), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning “place of the Qulla”) or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. It is a series of intermontane basins lying at about 12,000 feet (3,650 m) above sea level. The plateau is located at the latitude of the widest part of the north–south-trending Andes. The bulk of the Altiplano lies in Bolivia, but its northern parts lie in Peru, and its southwestern fringes lie in Chile. The northeastern part of the Altiplano is more humid than the southwestern part, which has several salares (salt flats), due to its aridity. At the Bolivia–Peru border lies Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America.
Source
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Q: What is the narrowest point between the continents of Asia and North America?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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