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Venezuela
7.3 Magnitude Earthquake
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Venezuela, 12 miles off the Cariaco Peninsula. The earthquake is reportedly the strongest earthquake to hit the area in the last two centuries. No casualties or injuries are confirmed and officials say damages were minimal due to the epicenter’s 76.5 mile depth. The shake was felt by many in northern South America including Caracas, Venezuela- some 370 miles away from the epicenter. Power was also knocked out in Trinidad. No tsunami threat has been issued.This map depicts the location of the earthquake’s epicenter. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: USGS
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Malaysia
China-financed Projects Canceled
On Tuesday, Malaysia’s Prime Minister ended his five-day visit to Beijing, China by announcing the cancellation of the China-backed projects in Malaysia. The projects include a $20 billion railway, the 688 kilometers-long East Coast Rail Link, which would have connected the capital city of Kuala Lumpur with southern Thailand, and two gas pipelines costing $2.3 billion. This is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative spanning across Asia. According to the Prime Minister, the two major infrastructure projects could put Malaysia under a great debt, and possibly bankruptcy. With the understanding from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Malaysia canceled the projects after months of suspension.This map depicts the proposed projects to revive the Silk Road. Click on the map to learn more.
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Greenland
Thickest Ice Breaks
The thickest and oldest ice in the Arctic circle has cracked for the first time in recorded history. Scientists believed this region of Arctic ice would have been one of the last frozen strongholds but intense heat waves in February and August, as well as Arctic wildfires, have caused them to reevaluate. As the ice becomes mobile, scientists worry polar bears and other sea mammals will lose their ability to hunt and maintain their livelihood. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet- this year the extent of the sea ice is 880,000 sq miles below the 1981-2010 average. This map depicts the current extent of sea ice in the Arctic region as well as the median (yellow line) from1981-2010. Click on the map to learn more.
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It may be hard to tell at first glance, but this is, in fact, a map about Iowa’s rainfall. This map is published by Wikipedia, everybody’s favorite source for quick and easy research and it can be found on their page on the state of Iowa. While we can’t tell exactly what this map depicts at first glance, we can be certain this is definitely a cartographer’s quandary.
Not everything about this map needs improvement. The color scheme is arguably quite pleasing, and the visualization itself looks very nice, but it’s missing many key elements that would make it more informative. We can cut Wikipedia a bit of slack since this map is taken out of context. On the page, it has a caption explaining in better detail what we’re looking at. However, there is still no title, north arrow, data source, or scale bar. Without a scale bar, unless we happen to know the width and height of the state of Iowa, we have no way to know the amount of distance these rainfall regions cover. Without a title, if this map is taken out of context (as anyone can do since Wikimedia Commons images are public domain), it immediately becomes unclear. The data source can be found when you click on the image from the page, but the image lacks legitimacy on its own.
Arguably the biggest issue with this map is a lack of context. We don’t necessarily need to know where Iowa is or what’s around it since that’s not what this map is about (though it might be helpful to have those things). This map is about Iowa rainfall, but unfortunately, that alone doesn’t tell us much. Unless you have an in-depth geographic knowledge of Iowa, you have no idea what parts of Iowa receive what rainfall, aside from the obvious cardinal directions (which we also can’t technically know without a north arrow). Sure, we can see here that Northwest Iowa receives the least rainfall, and Southeast the most, but do we know that the capital city of Des Moines receives 36 inches of rainfall a year, or where that falls in the color range? This map could use a layer of major roads, cities, rivers, or other geographic features to provide context to the viewer. Otherwise, we’re just looking at a blob.
The legend is another main point of focus for improvement. While we have a nice range of colors, growing in intensity as rainfall increases, the numbers assigned to these colors make little sense. For example, Des Moines, Iowa receives 36 inches of rainfall annually. However, there is no color on this map to represent the number 36 – the legend jumps straight from 35 to 37. Maps that use graduating colors to represent numeric data need to be classified in ranges so that all possible values are accounted for. With a little more attention to detail, and a little more context, this could be an excellent map – but for now, we have a real cartographer’s quandary on our hands.
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Q: Where is the deepest lake located?
A: Siberia, Russia
Lake Baikal, located in Siberia, Russia, is the world’s deepest lake – about 5,387 feet deep. It is also the world’s oldest lake (25 million years) and spans across 3.15 million hectares. It contains 20% of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater.
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Q: How deep is the largest man-made mine?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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