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Yemen
Houthis Kill Civilian Sailors
An attack by Houthi rebels on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden has resulted in the first civilian deaths since the beginning of their campaign against shipping traffic passing Yemen. The Barbados-flagged True Confidence was heading west, carrying steel products and trucks from China to be unloaded in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, when it was struck by a missile about 50 nautical miles (93 km) southwest of the Yemeni city of Aden. The Houthi rebels asserted they targeted the ship because of American ownership, despite the fact it is Liberian-owned and Greek-operated. Twenty-one crew members were rescued by the Indian destroyer INS Kolkata. This morning, the owners and managers of the ship confirmed that one Vietnamese and two Filipino sailors were killed in the attack.
This map depicts the location where the cargo vessel True Confidence was struck in the Gulf of Aden by a missile launched by Houthi rebels, killing three civilian sailors on board. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: BBC
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United States
Haley Ends Primary Fight
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has formally suspended her campaign for the Republican nomination for this year’s presidential election. Haley’s concession leaves former President Donald Trump as the presumed candidate against the Democratic incumbent, President Joseph Biden. Haley, who was appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations by Trump during his tenure from 2017 to 2021, was the last candidate standing in the Republican field against Trump, who comfortably won 15 of 16 state primary contests this past “Super” Tuesday. On the Democratic side, Joseph Biden has also dominated his primary challengers. Assuming Trump is formally confirmed, November will see the first presidential contest between an incumbent candidate and a predecessor since Theodore Roosevelt ran for the Progressive Party against his Republican successor, William Howard Taft, in the 1912 election.
This map depicts the results of the presidential primary and caucuses this past Super Tuesday. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: New York Times
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England
Oldest Fossilized Forest Found
A new study published in the Journal of the Geological Society has found that fossilized trees in southwest England belong to Earth’s earliest-known forest. The 390-million-year-old fossils supplant the Gilboa fossil forest in New York state, which dates back to 386 million years, as the world’s oldest known forest. During the Middle Devonian period of 393 million to 383 million years ago, what is now the UK was part of a continent called Laurentia found below the equator, with a warm and dry climate. This finding shows the forest seems to have hosted just one type of plant, known as a cladoxylopsid, which is thought to be closely related to ferns and sphenopsids (horsetails). This now-extinct plant looked like a palm tree, with a long central stem and many twigs branching off of it, similar to palm fronds. These trees would have stood around 6.5 to 13 feet (2 to 4 meters) high. This finding highlights a turning point in Devonian plant ecology toward forest-type environments, as trees and other plants helped stabilize sediments through their root systems.
This map depicts the location of the world’s oldest fossilized forest, found near the town of Minehead, in Somerset, England. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What state has the most imperiled biodiversity in the contiguous US?
A: California
Biodiversity (or biological diversity) refers to the variety of life on Earth, including all living lifeforms from genes to species to ecosystems. California is home to more species of plants and animals than any other state in the nation. Its varied geography (including the highest and lowest places in the continental U.S.) and proximity to both the ocean and mountain makes it a global biodiversity hotspot. California has more threatened species than any other state in the U.S. in large part due to habitat loss and conversion, impacts from invasive species, and climate change. It has more land under biodiversity protection than any other of the lower 48 states, but it’s also home to high concentrations of imperiled species that live outside of those areas. Major stressors include its rapid expansion as the fifth-largest economy in the world as well as its growing population of over 40 million people.
Source
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Q: Where can you find the world’s largest deposits of amber?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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