By Cristian Urcola, Matteo Giaccaria and Ian Lilly BER (S2E)
As most of you know there was a drought happening all over the world in the summer 2022. In this article we will focus on Europe. However, we will make a few references to other parts of the world throughout the article, like the Chang Jiang in China.
The drought was caused by climate change weakening the Jet stream that brings moisture from the Atlantic to continental Europe. This caused both underground and above ground water reservoirs/lakes to dry up
This map shows how extreme the drought is in certain areas – https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000
Last summer, there have been severe droughts in Europe, in fact, these are the worst dry spells that we have had for around 500 years. Some areas have been worse affected than others as you can see on this chart. The redder the country is, the more it has been affected. As you can see, the southern European countries have been greatly affected. Additionally, when I was driving through France, I saw many burnt forests and lots of ash due to the drought.
One very notable situation has been the drying of the Chang Jiang. The Chang Jiang (formerly known as Yangtze) was the third largest river in the world and has completely dried up due to the shortage of water. It enabled archeologists to uncover its secrets.
Archeological findings:
- We have discovered a Stonehenge-like stone circle in Spain. It is said to be 7000 years old. Unfortunately, it cannot be moved as it has a major chance of crumbling and breaking, so we must let it return underwater for it to be preserved.
- Another thing we have found is an unexploded bomb from WWII that was underwater and recently stuck out. However, it was very unstable, so it was purposefully exploded underground.
Stonehenge-like circle in Spain
- We found a shipwreck in a Dutch canal, which is also a vital archaeological site. However, its only flaw is that it is made of wood, and if wood is not preserved underwater, then it starts to rot, therefore, it will not last long if it’s not underwater.
WW2 ship revealed
