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Iceland
Volcano Erupts Near Reykjavik
Wednesday, the Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwest Iceland began erupting, just eight months after the last eruption officially ended. The Icelandic Meteorological Office urged people to stay away from Fagradalsfjall, located in an uninhabited valley 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, and 15 miles (24 km) from Iceland’s international airport. No flights were disrupted, and the airport remained open. Live video feed from the site shows magma spewing from a narrow fissure a few hundred feet long over a lava field from last year’s eruption, which was the first on the Reykjanes Peninsula in nearly 8000 years. A series of earthquakes this past week hinted that volcanic activity could occur. With 129 other volcanoes, Iceland averages an eruption every four to five years.
This map depicts the location of the Fagradalsfjal volcano, as well as Iceland's capital city Reykjavik, and Iceland's Keflavik International airport. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: CBC News
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Armenia - Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh Tensions Rise
Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan reignited on Wednesday when clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of ethnic Armenians within Azerbaijan, caused the deaths of soldiers from both countries. The Armenian military blames Azerbaijani forces for drone attacks that killed two Armenian soldiers and injured 14. Azerbaijan contends that Armenian Karabakh forces killed a conscript, to which Azerbaijani forces responded by taking over strategic posititions in the region. The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh has been ongoing since 1994. In 2020, a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan killed more than 6,600 people. Amidst intense fighting, Russia initiated a peace deal allowing Azerbaijan to reclaim larger parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.
This map depicts the location of Nagorno-Karabakh which is claimed both by Armenia and Azerbaijan. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Barron's
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Australia
Great Barrier Reef Bounces Back
The northern and central parts of the Great Barrier Reef are showing their highest levels of coral cover since monitoring began nearly four decades ago. However, researchers caution that the reef can experience periods of growth and die-off due to a variety of factors. Underwater heat waves connected to climate change have triggered past coral bleaching events so severe that scientists worried the reef would never look the same again. And while the upper parts of the reef show signs of growth, the southern stretches of the reef are suffering, in large part due to an outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, which feed exclusively on live coral. Rapid growth in coral cover in the northern and central sections appears to have come at the expense of the diversity of coral on the reef, with most of the increases accounted for by fast-growing branching coral called Acropora.
This map depicts the extent of the Great Barrier Reef along the northeastern coast of Australia. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: At around 2,500 miles (4,000 km) away from Rome, where can you find the furthest known outpost of the ancient Roman Empire?
A: Farasan Islands, modern-day Saudi Arabia
The Roman Empire, at its peak, covered around 1.7 million square miles (5 million km sq), reaching that size under Emperor Trajan around 117 CE. The Romans held the entirety of the Mediterranean basin, from the Atlantic coast of Africa in modern-day Morocco in the west to the eastern shores of the Black Sea, and from the far north of the island of Great Britain to the Arabian Peninsula's Red Sea shores. That's where you'll find the Farasan Islands, which the Romans called "Portus Ferresanus." An inscription found there dates the Roman garrison placed there at 144 CE, shortly after administration of the islands was transferred from the province of Arabia Felix to Aegyptus (Egypt). Stanford University's ORBIS tool, which calculates travel times between different points of the Roman Empire, doesn't include the far-flung outpost, but sets travel time from Rome to Berenice, the southern-most port on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, at 40-50 days.
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Q: Where is the only place in the world where you can mine for this blue/violet gemstone, a variant of the mineral zoisite?
Stay tuned for the answer to today's question in tomorrow's DailyGeo.
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