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Seoul Residents Sweating with Record ‘Tropical Nights’ Weather 

Women use umbrellas to shield from the sun at a market in Seoul on August 16, 2024, during a prolonged heatwave which has gripped much of the country. (AFP)
Women use umbrellas to shield from the sun at a market in Seoul on August 16, 2024, during a prolonged heatwave which has gripped much of the country. (AFP)
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Seoul Residents Sweating with Record ‘Tropical Nights’ Weather 

Women use umbrellas to shield from the sun at a market in Seoul on August 16, 2024, during a prolonged heatwave which has gripped much of the country. (AFP)
Women use umbrellas to shield from the sun at a market in Seoul on August 16, 2024, during a prolonged heatwave which has gripped much of the country. (AFP)

Residents of South Korea's capital are resorting to novel ways to beat the heat as a century-old weather record fell Friday following a 26th "tropical night" in a row -- when the temperature stays above 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit).

"I take a cold shower before bed and tie freezer packs around my electric fan to cool the air," Lee Ji-soo told AFP Friday.

Overnight temperatures in Seoul have sizzled above 25 degrees Celsius for 26 days in a row, officials said Friday, marking the longest streak since modern weather observation began in 1907.

Such evenings are widely known as "tropical nights" in South Korea.

Much of the world is enduring a summer of sweltering weather, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning last month of an "extreme heat epidemic", and calling for action to limit the impact of climate change.

The intense heat in Seoul is expected to continue, according to the met office, setting a record every day until next week.

"The cold air is not coming down from the north," Youn Ki-han, director at Seoul's Meteorology Forecast Division, told AFP.

"Usually around this time the temperature drops in the morning and evening... but currently we aren't seeing any signs of that yet," said Youn.

As temperatures soar, residents struggle to find ways to cope with the sweltering nights.

"I think I turn on my air conditioner 23 hours a day," said Kim Young-sook, who lives in Gangnam district, an affluent neighborhood in Seoul.

"I'm worried my dogs will become too hot -- even during at night."

That isn't an option for Lee Ji-soo, who straps icepacks to her fan.

"I do have an air conditioner but I just can't afford the electricity bill," she said.

"The air is suffocating sometimes. I don't know how long I can live like this."

- Power hungry -

Data from Korea Power Exchange showed South Korea's electricity demand hit an all-time high on Monday as people battled the heatwave with air conditioners and fans.

Some 102.3 gigawatts were used, passing the previous record of 100.6 gigawatts set last August, the agency said.

According to the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the number of days with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius in the world's largest capital cities has surged by 52 percent over the past 30 years.

In 2018 alone, Seoul experienced 21 days with temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius -- more than the previous 10 years combined.

"In just one generation, there's been an alarming increase," said Dr Tucker Landesman, a senior researcher at IIED.

Climate activists in South Korea are calling for more government action.

"There's no chance that this will get better and it's bound to get worse," Youn Se-jong, an environmental lawyer, told AFP.

"Strengthening the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions should be the priority," he added.

South Korea currently has the lowest proportion of renewable energy in its power mix among all OECD countries and is the G20's second-highest carbon emitter from coal per capita, according to energy think tank Ember.

North Korea is also sweltering under a heatwave and issued a warning earlier this week, with central areas including Pyongyang affected.

"Severe heat of 33 to 37 (degrees Celsius) is foreseen in some areas," said Kim Kwang Hyok, an official at the State Hydro-Meteorological Administration.

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Varieties

Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
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Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS

Brazilian scientists have identified a new species of giant dinosaur with ties to a similar animal found in Spain, reinforcing knowledge that land routes once connected parts of South America, Africa and Europe about 120 million years ago.

Named Dasosaurus tocantinensis, the species is one of the biggest found in the South American country and was described this month in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Reuters reported.

The fossils were uncovered in 2021 at a site hosting infrastructure works near Davinopolis, in Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhao, and the research was led by Elver Mayer of the Federal University of the Sao Francisco Valley.

The remains include a femur measuring about 1.5 meters (59 inches), which helped researchers estimate the animal stretched roughly 20 meters long.

"As the excavation progressed over the days, we began to see the evidence of that huge bone, which is the femur," said Leonardo Kerber, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) who contributed to the research.

"This indicates it was a very large dinosaur. Today we know Dasosaurus is among the biggest dinosaurs ever found in Brazil," he noted.

According to UFSM, analysis indicated the species is the closest known relative of Garumbatitan morellensis, a dinosaur described in Spain.

Their lineage was European and may have dispersed into what is now South America roughly 130 million years ago, likely via northern Africa, before the Atlantic fully opened, the university said.

Dasosaurus tocantinensis's name combines references to the region where the dinosaur was found, including the Tocantins River, a major waterway whose eastern margins lie near the fossil site.

Varieties

German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
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German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo

The German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has died, a spokesperson for his publishing house, Suhrkamp Verlag, told AFP on Saturday.

He died at the age of 96 in Starnberg, in southern Germany, she said, citing information from the family of the politically engaged theorist.

Habermas was considered the most influential German philosopher of his generation, involved in all the major postwar debates and seeing a united Europe, in his view, as the only remedy for the rise of nationalism, AFP reported.

In his later years, he devoted himself to promoting a federal European project and prevent the continent from falling, as it did in the 20th century, into nationalist rivalries.

Throughout his life, Habermas linked philosophy and politics, thought and action.

After serving as the voice of German student protest in the 1960s, he became its target thirty years later while warning of the risks of "left-wing fascism".

In 1989, he criticised the terms of German reunification, guided essentially by the demands of the market, and which made "the Deutsche mark its standard."

Born on June 18, 1929 in Duesseldorf, Habermas had been enrolled in the Hitler Youth, but he was too young to have taken an active part in the war. As a teenager, he was deeply marked by the collapse of Nazism.

Varieties

Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
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Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)

A long-running dispute about the origin of a North Sea crater has finally been settled, as new research finds a massive asteroid hit the water and triggered a towering tsunami millions of years ago.

Scientists have found that the Silverpit Crater – which lies around 700 meters beneath the southern North Sea seabed, roughly 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire – was formed when an asteroid or comet struck the region roughly 43 to 46 million years ago, sparking a 330 feet tsunami.

Since geologists first identified the formation in 2002, the 3km-wide crater and its surrounding ring of circular faults spanning about 20 km have sparked intense debate, according to The Independent.

But researchers say their new study marks the clearest evidence yet that the structure is one of Earth’s rare impact craters.

This confirmation places it in the same category as well-known structures such as the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, which is linked to the dinosaur mass extinction.

The team used computer modelling and analyzed newly available seismic imaging and microscopic geological samples taken from beneath the seabed.

Dr. Uisdean Nicholson, a sedimentologist in Heriot-Watt University’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, who led the investigation, said: “New seismic imaging has given us an unprecedented look at the crater.”

He said samples from an oil well in the area also revealed rare ‘shocked’ quartz and feldspar crystals at the same depth as the crater floor.

“We were exceptionally lucky to find these – a real ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ effort. These prove the impact crater hypothesis beyond doubt, because they have a fabric that can only be created by extreme shock pressures,” said Nicholson.

The scientists say these microscopic minerals form only under the extreme pressures generated during asteroid impacts, providing strong confirmation of the event.

Early research proposed that the feature was created by a high-speed asteroid impact. Supporters of that idea pointed to its round shape, central peak, and surrounding concentric faults, which are often seen in known impact craters.

But other scientists suggested different explanations. Some proposed that underground salt movement distorted the rock layers and created the structure.

Others argued that volcanic activity may have caused the seabed to collapse.

In 2009, geologists even voted on the issue. According to a report in the December 2009 issue of Geoscientist magazine, most participants rejected the asteroid impact explanation at the time.

The latest findings, published in the journal Nature Communications and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), now appear to overturn that conclusion.

Dr. Nicholson said: “Our evidence shows that a 160-meter-wide asteroid hit the seabed at a low angle from the west.”

“Within minutes, it created a 1.5 km high curtain of rock and water that then collapsed into the sea, creating a tsunami over 100 meters high.”

The impact would have produced a violent explosion at the seafloor and sent enormous waves spreading across the region.

Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London, who attended the 2009 debate about the crater’s origin and contributed to the new research, said the researchers have “finally found the silver bullet” to end the debate.

He said: “I always thought that the impact hypothesis was the simplest explanation and most consistent with the observations.”

“It is very rewarding to have finally found the silver bullet. We can now get on with the exciting job of using the amazing new data to learn more about how impacts shape planets below the surface, which is really hard to do on other planets,” Collins added.

Dr. Nicholson also expressed his excitement about using the new findings for further research into asteroids.

“Silverpit is a rare and exceptionally preserved hypervelocity impact crater,” he said.

“These are rare because the Earth is such a dynamic planet – plate tectonics and erosion destroy almost all traces of most of these events.”