By 12 January 2011, there had been 2,228 deaths of coalition forces in Afghanistan since operations started there in 2001, and 2010 was the deadliest year so far with 711 deaths of personnel on operations. The first six months of 2010 showed a 31% increase in the number of civilian casualties over the same period in 2009, while a November 2010 UN report said that it had documented 2,412 conflict-related civilian casualties from January to October 2010 – an increase of 20% over the previous
Continue reading →
According to findings from its first report on global road safety, the World Health Organization states that Eritrea, in Africa, is the deadliest place to travel by road in terms of deaths per capita, with 48 deaths per 100,000 people in 2007. The deaths are all related to road traffic accidents.
In September 2007 cavers of the Ukranian Speleological Association reached a new record depth of 2,191 m (7,188 ft 3 in) in the Krubera Cave in the Arabika Massif, Georgia. Over 2.5 km (8,202 ft) of new cave passages were explored in this 29-day underground expedition.
The greatest depth accurately measured for any bird is 534 m (1,751 ft) by a 29-kg (63-lb 14.4-oz) emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) at Coulman Island, Ross Sea, Antarctica, and recorded by Professor Gerald Kooyman of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in November 1993. Kooyman measured almost 16,000 dives from five different birds, the longest of which lasted 15.8 minutes.
The deepest concert underground was at 1271 m (4,169 ft 11 in) below sea level at Pyhäsalmi Mine Oy, Pyhäjärvi, Finland and was performed by Agonizer (Finland) on 4 August 2007.
The fish that lives at the greatest recorded depth is a species of cusk eel (family Ophidiidae) called Abyssobrotula galatheae. The 20-cm (8-in) long fish has been collected from the Puerto Rico Trench at a depth of 8,370 m (27,460 ft).
Of the submersibles currently in service, the Japanese research submarine Shinkai 6500 is capable of diving the deepest. On 11 August 1989, it reached a depth of 6,526 m (21,414 ft) in the Japan Trench off Sanriku, Japan. The Shinkai 6500 is a state of the art three-person submersible 9.5 m (31.16 ft.) long, 2.7 m (9.9 ft.) wide and 3.2 m (10.5 ft.) high. It is owned by the Japan Marine Science & Technology Centre (JAMSTEC) and hired around the world for many different
Continue reading →
The deepest underwater dive by a flying bird is 210 m (690 ft) by a Brünnich’s guillemot or thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) with a maximum speed of descent of around 2 m (6 ft 6 in) a second. Auks in general are excellent swimmers and recent technology has made tracking the depth of their dives much easier. Devices have shown that murres make up to 20 consecutive dives staying at the surface for less than a minute between each dive. Some murres have recorded dives
Continue reading →
Lake Baikal in the southern part of eastern Siberia, Russia is the deepest lake in the world. It is 620 km (385 miles) long and 32-74 km (20-46 miles) wide. In 1974 the lake’s Olkhon Crevice was measured by the Hydrographic Service of the Soviet Pacific Navy and found to be 1,637 m (5,371 ft) deep, of which 1,181 m (3,875 ft) is below sea level.
The deepest half marathon race took place at a depth of 212 m (695 ft) in Bochnia salt mine, Poland on 4 March 2004. The running track was 2,438 m long which the 11 participants circuited approximately 8.5 times to run a total distance of 21,097 m. Bochnia is Europe’s oldest salt mine; operating since 1248.