Weeks of drought across Europe have caused the water level in rivers and lakes to drop to levels few remember, revealing long-submerged treasures.
In Spain, suffering its worst drought in decades, archaeologists have rejoiced at the appearance of a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the “Spanish Stonehenge” that is often covered by water from a dam.
Here’s what we know about this find.
Where is the ‘Spanish Stonehenge’?
Officially known as the Guadalperal Dolmen, the stone circle is currently fully exposed in a corner of the Valdecanas reservoir, in the central province of Cáceres, where authorities say the water level has dropped to 28% of its capacity.
What is the Guadalperal Dolmen?
This could be the largest Neolithic site that has been found in the Iberian Peninsula.
Archaeologists refer to it as the ‘Spanish Stonehenge’, due to its size and estimated age.
It was discovered by the German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under the Francisco Franco dictatorship. Since then, it has only been visible in its entirety four times. This has allowed researchers to take a closer look at it.
‘Zoe’, first named heat wave
The ProMeteo project, a pilot strategy developed in Seville, named the first heat wave on the planet at the end of July: it was called Zoe and it lasted about a week.
Heat waves, as defined by the project, will receive their own name that will begin with the last letter of the Spanish alphabet. The first five will be named as Zoe, Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao and Vega. The idea is to classify and name heat waves based on their consequences on health and their impact on life, according to a report in the newspaper
The project is led by experts from the Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and the Seville City Council, the Spanish Meteorology Agency, the University of Seville, the Pablo de Olavide University, the Carlos III Institute, the Spanish Climate Change Office, the Alliance for the day After and LifeWatch Eric.
The team has developed an algorithm that monitors the heat wave on a daily basis.
With information from Reuters
