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United States
100+ Miles of Tornado Destruction
A deadly set of tornadoes swept across the southeastern United States Friday evening. Traveling over 100 miles, the violent twisters formed during a severe weather outbreak spanning from Louisiana to North Carolina. The first tornado touched down near Rolling Rock, located around 60 miles (97 km) from Jackson, Mississippi, and stayed on the ground for over an hour before eventually re-forming and continuing across the state. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has confirmed that 25 people were killed in Mississippi with 55 people injured and 2,000 homes damaged or destroyed, making this outbreak of tornadoes one of the deadliest in state history. Mississippi's governor and President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency on Saturday, with support sent in as the state braced itself for further harsh weather over the weekend.
This map depicts the storm system that rolled across the southeastern United States, causing a tornado outbreak Friday night. Click on the map to learn more.
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Germany
Strikes Shut Down Transportation
Rail, bus, and air travel have been shut down throughout most of Germany as unions have called a 24-hour "warning" strike to seek better pay for workers following an extended period of surging price inflation. German employers have proposed a 5% wage increase over 27 months and a one-off payment of 2,500 euros, but the two major unions, Verdi and EVG, see this proposal as inadequate after annual inflation hit 9.3% last-month. All public transport has been halted in seven German states, regional rail travel is unable to run on even an emergency schedule, and every major airport in the country apart from Berlin Brandenburg airport is affected. Talks between the unions and the employers will be ongoing throughout the week.
This map depicts the seven states of Germany where local public transport has been completely shut down during a 24-hour "warning" strike by two major German unions seeking higher wages for workers. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: RTL News
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United States
Chemical Spill in Pennsylvania
Friday night, 8,000-12,000 gallons of acrylic latex polymer were released by a chemical processing plant in Bristol Township at Otter Creek, north of Philadelphia. Trinseo PLC, the company that owns the plant, has pointed to equipment failure as the reason for the spill. Otter Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River, a source of drinking water for 14 million people in four states. Officials emphasized that contaminants had not been found in the city’s water system as of Sunday, and the Philadelphia Water Department says it is confident that tap water is safe to drink through Monday night. Early on Sunday, while testing was underway, residents were advised to buy bottled water as a precaution. For Philadelphia residents, the spill brought to mind the toxic chemical release from the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a little more than a month ago.
This map depicts the areas potentially impacted by the latex spill. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What enormous lake in Southern Africa, once larger than Switzerland, is said to be where the first modern Homo sapiens began to evolve?
A: Lake Makgadikgadi, Botswana
Located in northeastern Botswana lies one of the world's largest salt flats, the Makgadikgadi Pan. The pan is the only remnants of the once flourishing Lake Makgadikgadi, which dried up tens of thousands of years ago. The lake existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert as far back as 2 million years Before Present, and once covered an area up to 106,000 sq miles (275,000 sq km). The Okavango, Upper Zambezi, and Cuando rivers all used to empty into Lake Makgadikgadi, which was created thanks to the cut off of a drainage route in a deep fault system parallel to East Africa's Great Rift Valley some 2 million years ago. Recent studies of mitochondrial DNA evidence modern Homo sapiens first began to evolve in this region around 200,000 years ago. Around that time, the region was not just a vast desert but rich and fertile, filled with grasslands, lakes, rivers, and marshes - favorable conditions for habitation by evolving hominins.
Source
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Q: What landlocked US state has more miles of shoreline than the state of Florida?
Stay tuned for the answer to today's question in tomorrow's DailyGeo.
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