#China is home to around 200 #tiankeng, which are mostly distributed from the central #Shaanxi province down to the #GuangxiZhuang autonomous region in the southwest. Roughly 1/3 of the country consists of #karst — the highest proportion of overall surface area of any country in the world — compared with just under 1/5 in the United States.
There’s a gravity hole — a spot where the Earth’s gravitational pull is weaker — in the Indian Ocean, causing the sea level to dip by over 328 feet (100 meters). The anomaly has puzzled geologists for a long time, but researchers think they’ve found a credible explanation: magma. Read more from CNN: https://flip.it/CC.EAZ #Science#Geology#Asia#Ocean#IndianOcean
It’s part of a broader trade overhaul for key American allies in #Asia, including major economies like #SouthKorea and #Japan. Both are seeing a bigger share of exports heading to the #US at the expense of #China
A blistering heat wave has been toasting Asia for several weeks, resulting in hundreds of deaths and canceling schools across the region. A scientist for the World Weather Attribution, a meteorological research group, says only human-caused climate change could be responsible for the increased probability of extreme heat in places like the Philippines. “The heat wave exacerbated already precarious conditions faced by internally displaced people, migrants and those in refugee camps and conflict zones across West Asia,” the organization said in a new study. Read more from CBS News.
According to @Joysauce, fewer women in East Asia and Southeast Asia are choosing to have children — Taiwan has the world's lowest birth rate and South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan aren't far behind (or ahead, depending on your point of view). Jiaying Grygiel takes a look at the societal and economic reasons for these steeply falling birth rates. “People are making a perfectly rational decision about childbearing under the circumstances,” says Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.