The world celebrates Earth Day, rampant pollution takes the spotlight in places like India and Afghanistan, the Sichuan province in China struggles to recover from Saturday’s earthquake and more in today’s daily brief.
The high tide mark in Venice reached its sixth-highest level since 1872 on Sunday, after heavy rains and intense winds caused flooding in the Italian city.
While some flooding is typical in Venice during this time of year — including some instances earlier in November — news reports have estimated that 70 percent of the city was inundated by water this week.
After news earlier this week of the Curiosity rover petting and naming its new pet rock, Jake Matijevic, NASA released images today indicating that long ago, water probably flowed on the Martian surface.
Other notable images recently sent back from Mars include one from Curiosity’s older, but smaller rover sibling, Opportunity, that photographed small spherical objects, nicknamed “blueberries,” with it’s Microscopic Imager providing important evidence about long-ago wet environmental conditions.