A general interior overview during the opening ceremony prior to the Group A – FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 match between Qatar and Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium on November 20, 2022 in Al Khor, Qatar.
Credit: © Pablo Morano, BSR Agency/Alamy Images

Soccer‘s World Cup tournament for men, held every four years to determine the best team in international soccer, began on Sunday. The first match featured the team of the host country, Qatar, against Ecuador.

The tournament runs from November 20 to December 18 and will be held in six Qatari cities: (1) Al Khor, (2) Al Rayyan, (3) Al Thumama, (4) Al Wakrah, (5) Lusail, and (6) Doha. Favorites for this tournament include the teams from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup. It became the first Middle Eastern country to host the World Cup. Qatar is a small Arab country in southwestern Asia. It occupies a peninsula that juts from eastern Arabia into the Persian Gulf (commonly known as the Arabian Gulf in Arab countries). Doha is Qatar’s capital and largest city.

Over two-thirds of Qatar’s people were born in other countries. The native-born people are called Qataris. Qatar’s economy depends largely on oil and natural gas. Since the 1950′s, the government has earned a large amount of income from oil exports and has used it to develop Qatar. Qatar ranks among the richest nations in terms of average income per person. The government provides free education, free health care, and housing for the poor.

The first match was held in Al Khor. Ecuador defeated Qatar 2-0, the first opening-game loss of a host country in the World Cup’s history. Ecuador’s striker Enner Valencia scored both goals.

The FIFA World Cup is the most important international competition in soccer. The year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974 is engraved on the underside of the trophy. A different trophy records the winners of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which began in 1991.
Credit: © Alfredo Lopez, Jam Media/LatinContent/Getty Images

In the men’s FIFA World Cup, qualification tournaments begin three years before the final competition. The qualification tournaments are organized in six geographical zones. These six zones are (1) Africa, (2) Asia, (3) Europe, (4) North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, (5) Oceania, and (6) South America. The tournament finals bring together the 32 teams that qualify. The host country receives an automatic berth. In 2026, the tournament finals will be expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams.

The 32 teams that qualify are placed into eight groups, with each group having four teams. Each team plays the other three teams in their group. These matches are played at various locations throughout the host country. The two teams with the best record in each of the eight groups advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament—that is, a team is eliminated after losing one game. As the competition progresses, teams are eliminated until two teams qualify for the final match. The televised men’s final is the most popular single sports event in the world.

Uruguay won the first men’s FIFA World Cup in 1930. The World Cup was not held in 1942 and 1946 because of World War II (1939-1945). Brazil has won the World Cup five times (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), more than any other country.

April 18, 2016

Most of the world’s earthquakes occur in the area of the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire. Both Japan and Ecuador are located in this seismically active region. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Deadly earthquakes struck in Asia and South America over the last few days. In Japan, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck the island of Kyushu on Thursday, April 14. Another 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the same island two days later. Nine people were killed in the April 14 earthquake and more than 30 people died on April 16. After the second quake, heavy storms began in Japan, hampering rescuers racing to save people buried in landslides. Another earthquake—an aftershock—with a magnitude of 5.3 shook Japan today.

On April 16, Ecuador experienced a 7.8-magnitude earthquake. More than 300 people died in this quake. Although the strength of the Japan and Ecuador earthquakes may seem similar, because of how Richter magnitude is computed, each number on the Richter Scale represents a release of about 32 times the energy represented by the next lowest number. At a magnitude of 7.8, the Ecuador earthquake was about 20 times stronger than the 7.0-magnitude quake in Japan on April 16.

Both Japan and Ecuador are located on the Ring of Fire, a seismically active section of Earth created by the movement of tectonic plates. Experts state, however, that the Japan and Ecuador earthquakes were unrelated events. The areas are 9,000 miles ( 14,484 kilometers) apart, and they experienced different types of earthquakes. The earthquakes in Japan were of the strike-slip variety at a fault line (a break in Earth’s crust). In Ecuador, the quake was caused by tectonic plate activity at a subduction zone, where the Nazca Plate is slipping beneath the South America Plate.

August 20, 2013

The first new species of mammal identified in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years has been unveiled by a scientist who spent 10 years trying to prove that a specimen he found in a museum drawer was, in fact, a new kind of raccoon. The new animal, which has reddish-orange fur and a bushy tail, is called a olinguito, a Spanish word meaning little, adorable olingo. Olingos are members of the raccoon family, with brownish fur and larger bodies and ears than the olinguito. At only 2 pounds (0.9 kilogram), the olinguito is the smallest raccoon known to scientists. Kristofer Helgen of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., led the team that found the olinguito in the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador and Columbia.

The olinguito of Central and South America is the first canivore discovered in the New World in 35 years. (Mark Gurney)

Although new to science, the olinguito is not new to scientists. That is, scientists had previously observed the animal in the wild, collected pelts for museum collections, and even displayed the animal in zoos. But they never realized that it was a separate species. Helgen first saw the olinguito in the specimen collection at the Field Museum in Chicago while working to count the number of olingo species. After spending some years trying to prove that the specimen represented a new kind of raccoon, Helgen and other scientists traveled to the Andes to search for the animal in its natural habitat. Further studies, including genetic testing, confirmed that the animal was a previously unknown species.

The olinguito, whose scientific name is Bassaricyon neblina, is about the size of a hamster. Because of its well-developed canine teeth, the olinguito is considered a carnivore. Most carnivores are meat-eaters. However, like other members of the raccoon family, the olinguito eats other foods, particularly figs, insects, and plant nectar. Although tens of thousands of olinguitos live in the northern Andes, the people of the region apparently have never named it.

Additional World Book articles:

• Coati
• Ringtail