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Taiwan
China Tests Airspace
China has set a new one-day record for sending warplanes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Fifty-six warplanes from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force entered Taiwan’s self-declared airspace on Monday, including three dozen fighters and a dozen bombers. China had begun sending warplanes into the ADIZ on Friday, the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China when communists took control of the country. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and doesn’t recognize Taiwan’s claims of independent airspace or maritime territory. Chinese flights through Taiwan’s airspace are generally considered as a response to military activity by other countries in the region, including cooperative wargames carried out over the weekend in the western Pacific by the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan.
This map depicts the overlapping Air Defense Identification Zones in East Asia, including Taiwan, where the People’s Republic of China’s warplanes have made increasing incursions. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Deutsche Welle
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Oman
Cyclone Shaheen Makes Landfall
There has been widespread flooding and devastation along the northern coast of Oman following the historic landfall of cyclone Shaheen. High winds of up to 93 mph (150 km) caused waves up to 32 ft (10 m) to strike the coast. The devastation has killed 11 people thus far in Oman, and two fishermen were found dead in Iran. 5,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Oman due to flooding. This cyclone was extremely rare, dumping a year’s worth of rain in a single day in some places.
This map depicts Cyclone Shaheen making landfall in Oman. Storms are deemed ‘cyclones’ rather than hurricanes or typhoons if they form over the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Click on the map to learn more.
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World
Climate Change Destroys Reefs
The largest study of coral reef health ever conducted has revealed 14% of coral reefs over 10 regions around the world was lost between 2009-2018. The report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network indicated the world lost 4,517 square miles (11,700 square km) of coral in less than a decade, equal to more than all of the living coral located in Australia today. Consequently, reef algae growth, which increases when coral is under stress, skyrocketed by about 20% between 2010 and 2019. The report showed that coral bleaching caused by higher sea surface temperatures was the biggest contributor to the coral loss. With data gathered over 40 years by more than 300 scientists from 73 countries, the report stresses that climate breakdown is the largest existential threat to the world’s coral reef.
This map depicts the global coral reef distribution. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Around 50,000 years ago, an iron asteroid smashed into North America, leaving a giant hole measuring .75 miles (1.2 km) across and about 600 feet (180 m) deep in what U.S. state?
A: Arizona
‘Meteor Crater’ is located between Flagstaff and Winslow on the Colorado Plateau. The crater is relatively young and well-preserved compared to other crater sites, making it a great place for researchers. Experts believe if a similar crater were to hit today it could destroy a city the size of Kansas City. The size of the asteroid that produced the impact is not fully known but estimated to range between 100 and 170 feet (30 – 50 m) wide. Prior to the hit, the landscape looked much different than the shrub-covered desert it is today, with mammoths and ground sloths likely having roamed the terrain of forested rolling hills and no humans in sight.
Source
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Q: What city has zero roads and is linked by a series of waterways spanning 55 miles (89 km)?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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