A Small War with Global Consequences
Real-time maps of global shipping and flight traffic have featured prominently in news coverage since the United States & Israel decided to go to war with Iran.
Visualisations based on data from MarineTraffic have been widely used to show the growing number of fuel tankers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. Following threats from Iran to “attack and set ablaze any ship attempting to cross”, the strait has effectively been closed to commercial traffic. Around a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally passes through this narrow waterway, so its shutdown has sent stock markets into sharp decline across the globe.
An example is this animated map from The Guardian (shown at the top of this post), illustrating how shipping through the Strait of Hormuz almost ground to a halt over the weekend. In its article Global stock markets tumble as Trump bid to avert oil crisis in strait of Hormuz fails to reassure, the newspaper uses animated MarineTraffic data to visualise the disruption to global oil supplies. On the map, red dots indicate the oil tankers that are now lying at anchor.
Disruptions to air traffic have also taken place as a result of the war in Iran, with many major Middle Eastern airports forced to close. In Maps and Charts of the Iran Crisis Reuters has used FlightRadar24 data to visualise the dramatic reduction of commercial flights across the region, showing vast swathes of airspace - over Iran and Iraq, emptying as carriers cancelled or rerouted services.
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