​The Mysterious Impact of Roman Roads We Still Feel Today ● Two Volcanoes Erupt in Russia ● China Announces New COVID Cases and New Deaths

The mysterious effect of Roman roads, which we still feel today

It is no secret that the Romanians built roads for a long time. Everyone knows it. Indeed, at the time of the maximum expansion of the Roman Empire, at the beginning of the 2nd century AD, Roman roads covered more than 80,000 kilometers.

They were originally built to facilitate the movement of military troops, but an unexpected effect was felt soon after their creation and is still felt today. In particular, if you live near an old Roman road, even if it has been replaced by a modern one, you have a good chance of being in a prosperous area.

Although their original purpose was related to the movement of troops, roads began to connect important cities and settlements. Thus, they made a great contribution to their economic development. A study by researchers from the University of Gothenburg shows that this pattern has largely persisted even today.

However, a study published in the Journal of Comparative Economics argues that there is a crucial element in this whole model — the emergence of commercial centers. Thus, the model defined by the Swedish experts applies mainly to the European territory, where large urban centers have remained relatively in the same places as they were 2,000 years ago. However, this pattern does not hold in North Africa or the East, where caravans were the main means of transport and urban centers were even poorer but also more fragmented than European ones.

Returning to Europe, it is interesting that, according to the mentioned specialists, despite the fall of the Roman Empire and the chaos that engulfed Europe after that moment, the economic poles and the economic infrastructure were expected to change. And yet the urban structure remained largely unchanged.

Two volcanoes erupted in Russia

On the Kamchatka Peninsula, approximately 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow, two volcanoes erupted almost simultaneously. Both eruptions were preceded by a strong earthquake late last week.

Officials of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that in the case of the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano, the highest active volcano in Eurasia (4,754 meters), up to ten explosions per hour are reported, but it does not pose a danger to human communities in the area. The second volcano, located only a few tens of kilometers from the first, erupted almost simultaneously, spewing a significant amount of lava and volcanic ash.

Experts believe that these two eruptions are only the initial stage of a large eruption or even several. The Kamchatka Peninsula is one of the most active regions in terms of geothermal activity, with about 30 active volcanoes registered in a relatively small area.

The eruptions came just a year after the activation of three volcanoes in Alaska, indicating that geothermal activity is on the rise in that part of the world.

New cases of COVID and new deaths have been announced in China

Chinese authorities have announced two deaths in Beijing, with the number of Covid-19 cases rising to 962, after 621 cases were reported on Sunday.

The two deceased were 91 and 88 years old, respectively, and both suffered from serious illnesses. Another case was registered on Sunday, in an 87-year-old man. About 600 districts of the capital have been declared “special risk zones”, which means that new movement restrictions await residents. Several schools were also closed and employees of several companies were asked to work from home.

According to the National Health Commission, the number of Covid-19 cases in the country has increased by 27,000 today alone. These data come against the background of the recent relaxation of quarantine measures by the authorities.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com