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Thailand
Same-Sex Marriage Legalized
Thailand has become the first country in Southeast Asia – and second country in Asia, after Taiwan – to allow people of the same sex to marry. Nepal’s Supreme Court had provisionally allowed same-sex marriage, but the country has not passed any law on the matter. Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a bill formally legalizing same-sex marriage into law last June, and the legislation took effect yesterday, with hundreds of couples registering their marriages. Thais celebrated with mass wedding ceremonies and gatherings in malls, registrar’s offices, and the streets. This law gives married same-sex couples equal access to legal, financial, medical, adoption, and inheritance rights. Thailand has a reputation as one of the more open places in the world for LGBTQ+ people. Nevertheless, this change was the culmination of decades of activist campaigning often hindered by tumultuous domestic politics, including a military coup in 2014.
This map depicts the current countries around the world where same-sex marriage is protected by law, with Thailand being the latest to begin performing legal same-sex marriage ceremonies. Click on the map to learn more.
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Ireland-United Kingdom
Storm Brings Record High Winds
Millions of people in Ireland and northern parts of the UK were urged to stay at home Friday as hurricane-force winds disabled power networks and brought widespread travel disruptions. Storm Éowyn hit Ireland and the United Kingdom Thursday into Friday, preliminarily setting a new wind record for Ireland of 114 mph (182 km/h) at Mace Head, after which point the equipment stopped reporting. These record high winds battered Ireland and Northern Ireland, leaving almost one-third of Irish homes and businesses without power and forcing cancellation of hundreds of flights and the closure of schools and public transportation. Forecasters issued a rare “red” weather warning, meaning danger to life, across the whole island of Ireland and central and southwest Scotland.
This map depicts today’s wind warnings across the United Kingdom. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: The Telegraph
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United Kingdom
Best Fossils in the Worst Places
Researchers from University College London and the UK’s Natural History Museum have published a new study in Current Biology suggesting the earliest dinosaurs likely originally evolved in what are now some of the Earth’s most inaccessible places. The oldest dinosaur fossils that have been discovered date back around 230 million years, but they’ve come from locations relatively widely dispersed, and appear to be differentiated enough to indicate millions of years of evolution from their origins. Researchers believe the earliest dinosaurs may have originated in low-latitude Gondwana – the supercontinent in place at the beginning of the Triassic period. Those areas of Gondwana eventually broke up to become what are now the Amazon rainforest in South America and the Sahara in northern Africa – two of the most inaccessible and inhospitable places for paleontologists to dig for fossil evidence.
This map depicts dinosaur fossil finds on the Gondwana supercontinent from respective stages of the Triassic era, showing a dearth of fossils in the low-latitude areas that would eventually become the Amazon rainforest and the Sahara. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What is the name of the plateau which is home to South America’s largest lake?
A: Andean Plateau or Altiplano
The Altiplano is a high-elevation plateau, or plain, that stretches across large parts of southern Peru and western Bolivia and has small areas in Chile and Argentina. It is the widest part of the Andes mountain range and consists of several mountain basins that are connected together. The Andean Plateau originates northwest of Lake Titicaca, South America’s largest lake, in southern Peru and extends about 600 miles (965 km) southeast to the southwestern corner of Bolivia. It is a series of intermontane basins lying at about 12,000 feet (3,650 m) above sea level. Lake Titicaca occupies the northernmost basin; to the south are Lake Poopó and the Coipasa and Uyuni salt flats.
Source
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Q: What major desert can be found near the Altai Mountains?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Monday’s DailyGeo.
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