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By NCA NewsWire and James Cooney For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 02:58 EDT, 25 September 2023 | Updated: 03:55 EDT, 25 September 2023

Geologists have uncovered what they believe could be the world’s largest lithium deposit inside an ancient supervolcano along the Nevada-Oregon border in the US.

Clay containing up to 40 million metric tons of the precious metal was identified throughout the 28-mile-long McDermitt Caldera – nearly double what has been found in Bolivia’s salt flats that have long held the record for the most lithium deposits.

While the amount of lithium is based on estimates – no drilling has taken place – scientists have found high concentrations of lithium in the caldera since the 1970s.

As of 2022, the average battery-grade lithium carbonate price was $37,000 per metric ton, meaning the volcano is potentially sitting on $1.48 trillion worth of the precious metal.

Canada-based Lithium Americas Corporation plans to begin mining as early as 2026, mine the region for the next 40 years, and then backfill the pit. However, the plan has been criticized due to the environmental impact of mining and claims that the site is on sacred Native American land.

Lithium is a critical component for batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles and solar panels –  and China has dominated the market for decades because 90 percent of the metal mined is refined in the nation.

Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven University who was not involved in the study, told Chemistry World: ‘If you believe their back-of-the-envelope estimation, this is a very, very significant deposit of lithium.

‘It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics.’

McDermitt Caldera is believed to have formed about 19 million years ago, and last erupted 16 million years ago.

Geologists believe the eruption pushed minerals from the ground to the surface, which left lithium-rich smectite clay.

Faults and fractures also formed from the explosion that provided a way for lithium to rise to the surface of the crater. 

A lake formed within the caldera after the last eruption, and the team analyzed sediments, finding high lithium concentrations. 

The team shared in the study published in Science Advances that they hand-picked claystone samples from McDerrmitt Caldera and found they were also high in lithium concentrations.

Previous drilling in Thacker Pass, located nearby and owned by Lithium Americas, has 13.7 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent and was previously known as the largest deposit in the US.

To identify which supervolcanoes offer the best sources of lithium, researchers measured the original concentration of lithium in the magma. 

Because lithium is a volatile element that easily shifts from solid to liquid to vapor, it is tough to measure directly, and its original concentrations are poorly known.

The team looked at tiny bits of magma trapped in crystals during growth within the magma chamber. 

These ‘melt inclusions,’ completely encapsulated within the crystals, survive the supereruption and remain intact throughout the weathering process. 

As such, melt inclusions record the original concentrations of lithium and other elements in the magma. 

Researchers sliced through the host crystals to expose these preserved magma blebs, which are 10 to 100 microns in diameter, then analyzed them with the Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe in the SHRIMP-RG Laboratory at Stanford Earth.

The took is used to measure the ratio of lead to uranium to calculate the age of the mineral grain, which allowed researchers to identify the caldera’s lithium enrichment degree.

These results were then compared with data from a technique that details the chemical composition and physical properties of whole-rock samples and clay separates.

Researchers also noted in the paper that trioctahedral magnesian smectite clay minerals, which are lithium-bearing clay minerals, were found abundantly in the caldera.

Tom Benson with Lithium Americas and Columbia University told DailyMail.com that he began studying the McDermitt caldera in 2012 to understand why it contained so many different deposits.

‘I soon began to realize that Li [lithium] was the behemoth, occurring throughout the caldera from the northern tip in Oregon to the southern tip in Nevada,’ Benson said. 

Tom Benson with Lithium Americas and Columbia University told DailyMail.com that he began studying the McDermitt caldera in 2012 to understand why it contained so many different deposits.

‘I soon began to realize that Li [lithium] was the behemoth, occurring throughout the caldera from the northern tip in Oregon to the southern tip in Nevada,’ Benson said. 

‘So, I quickly changed my focus to understanding the origin of the Li deposit, as little to no information was known about its genesis at the time.’

‘This study shows caldera-wide drilling that demonstrates that this smectite to illite conversion at depth only occurs in the Montana Mountains and to the south around the Thacker Pass area. 

Benson continued to explain that lithium-bearing sediments are right at the surface of the Earth, which ‘makes the deposit one of the least impactful mines ever to be built.’

‘We will do a process called strip mining in which we dig a small hole to the bottom of the resource, and after about five years, start migrating the pit eastward, said Beson.

‘As we do that, we will start backfilling the pit (with material that has only touched the water, so it is benign to the environment – in fact, likely better because we will have removed As, Sb, and other heavy metals from the ground that are contained in the clay). 

‘Once the pit has reached its 40-year mine life, the pit will be completely backfilled and revegetated, leaving it much like how it looks today, if not more vegetated, and at a slightly lower elevation.’

Benson noted that phase one of the project aims to mine 40,000 tons annually, yielding $1.6 million in yearly revenue. 

‘The US would have its own lithium supply, and industries would be less scared about supply shortages.’ 

The US is slowly abandoning gas-powered cars for electric vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – but the shift also means it will be more reliant on other countries, like China, to provide the necessary materials.

Extracting lithium on US soil would help the nation on its path to self-reliance, which the country has strived to – but has yet to obtain.

The nation is home to only one active lithium mine, Clayton Valley, near Silver Peak, Nevada, but many companies are working to change that. 

The US imports hundreds of millions of lithium-ion batteries each year, with the volume ever increasing. 

According to data from the UN Comtrade Database, China accounted for most UUS battery imports last year, with a total trade value of $9.3 billion. South Korea and Japan are popular sources, with batteries worth $1.3 and $1.0 billion imported to the U.S. in 2022. 

The total import value of lithium-ion batteries nearly tripled since 2020, reaching $13.9 billion last year.

Data has proposed that about one million metric tons of lithium will be needed to meet global demand by 2040 – an eight-fold increase from the total global production in 2022.

‘Developing a sustainable and diverse supply chain to meet lower-carbon energy and national security goals requires mining the highest-grade domestic lithium resources with the lowest waste: ore strip ratios to minimize both the volume of material extracted from the Earth,’ the researchers wrote in a study published in Science Advances.

‘Volcano sedimentary lithium resources have the potential to meet this requirement, as they tend to be shallow, high-tonnage deposits with low waste: ore strip ratios.

While the discovery could be great news for the US economy, it spells trouble for Native American tribes that claim the land is sacred.

The Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock people are pushing back on mining, stating the project would ‘authorize almost 100 acres of disturbance from 267 exploration drill sites.’

The tribes are part of the People of the Red Mountain organization, which said there are 91 significant cultural sites in the area.

‘The global search for lithium has become a form of ‘green’ colonialism,’ People of Red Mountain, an Indigenous-led organization created to protect the sacred site, said in an August statement

‘The Caldera holds many first foods, medicines, and hunting grounds for tribal people both past and present.’ 

The organization is now trying to stop on the Oregon side of the caldera.

While lithium is critical in the transition to clean energy, extracting white gold can lead to long-term ecological damage.

The lithium extraction process uses a lot of water— more than 500,000 liters per ton of lithium.

Miners drill a hole in salt flats to extract lithium and pump salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface.

After several months, the water evaporates, leaving a mixture of manganese, potassium, borax and lithium salts, filtered and placed into another evaporation pool.

After 12 and 18 months, the mixture is sufficiently filtered to extract lithium carbonate.

Over a year, producing 60,000 tons of lithium could devastate the surrounding environment – up to 30 million tons of earth needs to be dug. 

This is more than the annual amount of dirt dug up to produce all coal output of all but seven or eight US states

In May 2016, dead fish were found floating in China’s Liqi River, where a toxic chemical leaked from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine.

Cow and yak carcasses were also found floating in the river, likely killed by drinking the contaminated water.

Lithium extraction also harms the soil and causes air contamination.

In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, residents believe lithium operations contaminated streams used by humans and livestock for crop irrigation.

In Chile, the landscape is marred by mountains of discarded salt and canals filled with contaminated water with an unnatural blue hue.

According to Guillermo Gonzalez, a lithium battery expert from the University of Chile, ‘This isn’t a green solution – it’s not a solution at all.’

Controversial fighter Sean Strickland has stunned the mixed martial arts world by pulling off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history as he took Israel Adesanya‘s middleweight crown via unanimous decision.

All three judges scored it 49-46 for the American, who clearly won the first round by dropping his opponent. 

Strickland survived a comeback of sorts from Adesanya in the second, then took the remaining stanzas of the contest with a brilliant effort that saw him continually pressure his rival and land big shots.

The new world champ was overcome with emotion in the octagon after the decision was announced and told the crowd, ‘Am I f**king dreaming? Am I going to wake up? Someone hit me!

‘I don’t cry much but I’m trying to keep my s**t together right now.’

Commentator and former heavyweight world champion Daniel Cormier was also stunned by the result.

‘It was a mountain he wasn’t supposed to climb. He wasn’t even supposed to be in this fight,’ he said, referring to the fact Strickland was a late replacement for the injured Dricus du Plessis.

‘It’s crazy. That’s why this sport is like no other. You don’t know, you just don’t know.

‘That was very clear and every judge got it right. It was four rounds to one for Sean Strickland, and he beat one of the greatest middleweights of all time.’

Adesanya was too emotional to speak more than two sentences at his post-fight press conference, telling the media, ‘Life throws curveballs at you,’ before leaving his coach Eugene Bareman to answer questions.

Strickland made his intentions very clear in the first rounds, shocking the crowd by levelling Adesanya with a clean one-two, then following up his devastating right with a series of left hands as his opponent barely managed to see out the round.

The Nigeria-born, New Zealand-based ex-champion found his distance in the second and seemed to come to grips with Strickland’s relentless pressure, landing a big right hand soon before the bell.

However, the American came roaring back in the third, with Adesanya looking too patient as he lost the initiative and failed to get his shots off while copping several huge blows.

It was more of the same in the fourth and fifth rounds as Strickland wore his opponent down with non-stop pressure, and even dropped his hands and roared at Adesanya to step up and throw down with him in the final moments of the bout.

Strickland had insulted Adesanya – often in unprintable fashion – in the lead-up to their clash, but he was unusually classy after taking the belt in what is far and away the biggest win of his career.

He also thanked the Aussie spectators, who gave him more support than his opponent, despite his Kiwi background. 

‘You guys know, Izzy’s a bad motherf**ker,’ he told the crowd.

‘You don’t fight a guy with that many highlight-reel knockouts.

‘The majority of my friends, he’s beat pretty easily. I was even kind of doubting myself at times.

‘But I’ve got to say, the fans in Australia, you guys motivated me. Not even joking around.

‘When I’m walking in there and I heard you guys yelling, in that fourth round I heard you guys yelling. It f**king fuelled me.

‘I thought I’d be walking away a little bloody, a little broken up. I’m a little shocked that didn’t happen.’ 

Strickland was more like his usual, controversial self in the press conference as he revealed he’d been calling Adesanya a ‘Chinaman’ when he was shouting at his rival in the final round.

He has often criticised the ex-champion for carrying the Chinese flag into the ring with him when he competed as a kickboxer in the country, as seen in a viral video.

On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Strickland again took aim at The Last Stylebender for his ties to China.

‘I always call him China’s little s**t because we have all done things … We’ve all been a w**re to somebody,’ Strickland said.

Adesanya gave his take on the fight in an Instagram post that was filmed as he was driven away from Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena with members of his family.

Taking off his sunglasses to reveal a bruise around his left eye and pulling his bloodied bottom lip down to show his teeth, he told his fans, ‘It’s not that bad. Nothing broken. A little touched-up. We gravy, baby. Still thriving, it’s all good.

‘I hate losing but I love living, and I’m thriving so, yeah, hang out with the family first, and [then] I’ll address the people.

‘But right now I gotta put me first.’

Several MMA stars were left in shock by the underdog win.

‘Wow! Did not see that coming,’ Dricus du Plessis posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

He was joined by Dustin Poirier, who wrote: ‘Unbelieveable… MMA is the craziest sport in the world. I F**king love this.’

Bareman refused to make any excuses for the loss, admitting his charge performed poorly as he said he didn’t want to take away from Strickland’s outstanding performance.

However, he insisted Adesanya will win a rematch and said his fighter wants to get back in the octagon against Strickland ‘next weekend’. 

UFC president Dana White was in favour of the pair meeting once again, saying ‘I think you do the rematch, absolutely’ soon after the judges’ scores were read out.

The biggest hunt to finally track down the Lock Ness Monster is set to begin this weekend, with Nessie enthusiasts from around the world expected to have their eyes on the infamous loch. 

The Loch Ness Centre and the Loch Ness Exploration, an independent research team, will scour the waters for the beast using drones with infra-red cameras and underwater detectors in the biggest search since the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau studies the loch back in 1972. 

Over the weekend, members of the public will be asked to keep a close eye on the loch for breaks in the water, movement, or even a sighting of its most famous inhabitant. Cameras have been set up along the shores, meaning people from across the globe can take part. 

Meanwhile, drones using infrared cameras will capture thermal images under the water, and a hydrophone will be used to detect acoustic signals beneath the surface. 

Paul Nixon, general manager of the Loch Ness Centre, said: ‘The interest in our weekend of activities has been fantastic, and to see how people from all around the world are still fascinated by the story of the Loch and Nessie.

‘We want anyone in the world to be able to help, which is why we are looking for budding monster hunters from anywhere to log in to the live stream of the Loch over the weekend and see if they spot anything mysterious.

‘We can’t wait to see what we find.’

So far this year, there have been four sightings, with one little girl’s photo of the elusive beast being branded the best picture in years. 

Charlotte Robinson had been staying at the Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston nack in 2018 when something popped up in the water 50 feet from the bank. 

Grabbing her camera, Charlotte was able to snap a picture of a blob in the water which apparently surfaced for a minute before disappearing again, reports the Mirror. 

Charlotte had been on holiday with her parents Kat and Dave when the incident occurred at about 7pm one evening. 

Describing the moment she came face to face with ‘Nessie’, Charlotte explained she knew there had been ‘something’ there. 

She said: ‘There was something in the water about 50 feet from the shore. I took a photo. It had a neck and head was in the shape of a hook.

‘I just took what I saw. It was black – I just don’t know how far it was out of the water. I’m not good at judging distances. 

‘But after about a minute it disappeared and then came back up again in a different place. It was up for less than a minute the second time. 

‘I kind of believed in Nessie, but I wanted to see the proof. I always imagined her as having a long neck and flippers. I have seen something but I’m not sure what.’

The photograph was rapturously received by the Nessie spotting community including long-time loch hermit Steve Feltham – who has spent the last 27 years watching the water. 

Mr Feltham, 55, who holds the Guinness world record for the longest continuous monster hunting vigil of Loch Ness, said: ‘I am totally excited by this photograph – it is the best of ‘Nessie’ in years.

‘There is clearly a solid object in it and it is relatively clear. It warrants further study. There may be a mundane explanation such as a seal, but I have not heard of a seal in the loch this year. 

‘For my money it is larger than a seal or an otter. It is a fantastic picture by Charlotte.’

Charlotte’s picture has drawn parallels with the the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ an infamous shot of Nessie that was eventually proven as a hoax. 

In 1934, The Daily Mail published a picture by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson of what appeared to be a sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.

For 60 years this celebrated photograph of a long necked creature  helped keep afloat the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

It became known as the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ as Lieutenant Wilson was a Harley Street gynaecologist. 

However, this photograph was actually of a modified toy submarine.

Now it’s alleged he was part of a plot to perpetuate the myth of the monster which began as a joke.

The last sighting was recorded by Steve Valentine, who was visiting from Urmston in the Manchester area, when he saw something from the Deepscan boat as they were returning from a loch tour at around 1pm on August 17.

‘I just saw a black shape in the water’, he said. It was when we were returning to the dock near to Urquhart Castle. I lost sight of it when the boat turned, but managed to get a quick photo from a distance.’

Another sighting on June 15 was photographed by a French tourist Etienne Camel, who said he and his wife Eliane witnessed a dark shape which was 15-20 metres (49 feet to 65 ft) long on the surface of the loch.

‘It was quite strange, I am a man of science so I never believed that the Loch Ness Monster is a prehistoric animal’, he said. ‘But when I was taking a picture I saw this long, long shadow. I called my wife over and we saw the shadow move. 

‘It was 15-20 metres long and was about 150 metres away. It was quite strange and then it disappeared.’

In April, father-of-three John Payne, 55, was admiring the scenery from a window at guest house Foyers Roost, Inverness, next to the Loch Ness when he noticed some strange movement on the loch. 

He took a picture of the scene, describing what he saw as ‘huge’. 

‘It must have been something very large because we were about a mile away from the loch and I could see it clearly’, he said. 

‘You wouldn’t have been able to see a bird or anything from that far away – it had to be something large. It was like a huge neck.

‘At first I thought it was a giant fin, but I know there are no dolphin or porpoises in the loch so I was thinking what the hell is this thing.

‘It wasn’t like it was tied to anything, like a buoy, because it kept moving further away.’

Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.

The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.

An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com. 

Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.

Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.

Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur – like an elasmosaur – that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.

Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.

It only takes the slightest slip-up to turn a dream holiday into a nightmare.

As travellers have been revealing in an online forum.

The pitfalls are plentiful, from packing blunders to airport mix-ups and booking the wrong dates. 

These examples and more were served up in a Reddit forum after user ‘Medium-Decision6899’ asked: ‘What is the dumbest travel mistake you’ve made?’

The replies came thick and fast. 

‘JustGenericName’ contributed to the debate with their painful hotel mishap, writing: ‘Ouch! I booked a hotel on the wrong side of the Grand Canyon.

‘Fun fact, that “10 miles” from the trailhead is a five-hour drive.’

In a similar vein, ‘Bruce_e’ chimed in with: ‘I once booked a month-long Airbnb for the wrong month.’

‘Cubsfanjohn’ contributed to the thread with this tale of woe: ‘I forgot to write down where I was staying and had to make a transatlantic telephone call on a pay phone in Berlin to my mom to have her check my e-mail. The worst part of it, she was out walking the dog and didn’t answer.’

And ‘jtonkinson’ – he booked a hotel for Portland in Oregon instead of Portland in the state of Maine.

Botching the booking basics was a common theme.

‘MaddBadger’ said: ‘I booked a train from Venice. When the train never arrived, I discovered I’d booked a bus. We missed it.’

Replying to this comment, ‘Medium-Decision6899’ wrote: ‘I did something similar. Showed up to the train station to catch my bus, obviously missed it. Bought a train ticket, read the arrival time as the departure time and missed that as well. Good times.’

‘Horkbajirbandit’ kept the missed-train theme going with this remark: ‘At least you didn’t miss your train because you were too busy filming it arriving. The doors closed in front of me and I had to wait three hours to get to the next one (I had booked the ticket for it two months in advance, too). That was the day I stopped filming story reels for social media.’ 

Not all ticket mishaps were related to trains. One user recalled waiting in line for the Anne Frank museum tour in Amsterdam before realising their ticket was ‘for the following year’.

Several travellers made crucial errors when packing for their holiday.

‘ShinjukuAce’ said: ‘I booked a trip to Istanbul in December, assumed it would be warm because it was on the Mediterranean and in the Middle East.

‘Didn’t check the weather predictions, didn’t pack any warm clothes, and it was snowing when I arrived.’

‘Hugobosslovescandles’ said: ‘Went on a weeklong hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in college and I forgot to pack a single pair of underwear.

‘I had to go to the doctor when I got home because I had such a bad rash on my scrotum.’

‘JennItalia269’ shared a similar experience after forgetting to pack underwear on a three-week trip to South America.

‘No offence to the Brazilians here, but let’s say their men’s style of underwear was not my idea of comfortable,’ they said. 

Airports proved to be another holiday hazard in the Reddit thread.

One user said: ‘Went to the wrong airport in Berlin and missed my flight.’

Fellow Redditor ‘cheesetrain’ shared a similar tale during their visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland.

‘When I get to the bus station, I ask for a ticket “to the airport”. I get my ticket and get on the bus,’ they penned.

‘Thirty mins into the trip, where we should be getting close to the airport, I check my Google maps and see we’re headed the wrong direction.

‘I ask someone if the bus is going to the Belfast airport. He looks horrified and tells me it’s going to Dublin airport. Missed my flight, had to get a new, way more expensive flight from Dublin airport.’

While ‘Trekker_Cynthia’ shared their husband’s passport blunder, which resulted in him missing out on their holiday altogether.

‘The night before our first trip to Barcelona, he noticed his passport had expired,’ they wrote. 

‘Hotels were nonrefundable at that point so I waved goodbye and did the trip solo.’

In another passport mishap, ‘brainonvacation78’ told how they grabbed their son’s passport instead of their own ‘before driving three hours to Chicago for a flight to Cuba early the next day’.

They continued: ‘Thankfully I have an amazing friend who went and got mine from my house and met me halfway. Got back to Chicago at 2am, and made my 6.30am flight. I gave my friend $100 for saving my a***.’

‘Riceingonthecake’ shared a passport error, too – ‘packing a passport in the check-in bag’. 

Another user, ‘KjunFries’, shared how they booked a rental car – for the wrong day.

‘The rental company was completely inflexible, so I ended up shelling out over $500 twice for a four-day rental,’ they wrote.

‘Then I discovered a cab to and from my destination – where I didn’t need a car anyway. Would’ve only cost $150.’

It’s the world’s biggest cruise ship and tickets are selling by the boatload.

Royal Caribbean has revealed that Icon of the Seas has been the fastest-selling ship in a maiden season in the cruise line’s history, with only limited spaces available for its debut Caribbean voyage in January 2024, which will depart from Miami.

And with CEO Michael Bayley telling investors this year that Icon of the Seas – which has a capacity for 7,600 guests – is the ‘best-selling product in the history of the business’, the mood at Royal Caribbean is undoubtedly buoyant.

Royal Caribbean’s floating city has been filmed out on the open water for the first time as she underwent sea trials ahead of her public launch.

Icon of the Seas sailed hundreds of miles on the open sea before returning to the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland, where she’s currently under construction.

Incredible video footage shows the colossal vessel, which is 1,198ft (365m) long and weighs 250,800 gross tonnes, gliding through the water, dwarfing the tug boats deployed to help steer her.

The camera also spins around the multi-coloured slides on the upper deck of the vessel. They are among some of the standout features on board, which will also include the first suspended infinity pool at sea and a three-storey family suite.

A third scene offers a close-up of the ship’s livery, while other clips show workers testing the ship’s key technical areas.

Carrying out the sea trials involved more than 2,000 specialists, four 37 to 67-tonne tugboats and more than 350 hours of work, Royal Caribbean reveals.

It notes that during the trials, preliminary tests were carried out on everything from the main engines and the hull to the ship’s brake system, steering and noise levels.

However, it says that Icon of the Seas passed its first sea trials’ with flying colours’, with its second sea trial due to take place later this year.

The latest construction update for the ship is that the ‘crew neighbourhood’ is being built. A space spread over four decks, it’s designed to be a ‘home away from home’ for the 2,350 crew members on board.

Icon of the Seas is taking the title of the world’s biggest cruise ship from another Royal Caribbean vessel, Wonder of the Seas, which is slightly smaller at 1,187ft (362m) long and a weight of 236,857 gross tonnes.

The ship’s three-storey family suite comes complete with its own white picket fence and mailbox. Other room options for guests include the ‘Surfside Family Suite’, with alcoves for kids ‘tucked away from the adults’, ‘Sunset Corner Suites’ and ‘Panoramic Ocean View’ quarters.

Once they’re out of bed, guests will find so many water features they may have trouble distinguishing the boat from the ocean.

For starters, Icon of the Seas will feature the largest waterpark at sea – called ‘Category 6’ – containing six ‘record-breaking’ slides: ‘Pressure Drop’ and its 66-degree incline – ‘the industry’s first open free-fall slide’; the 46ft- (14m) tall ‘Frightening Bolt’, the tallest drop slide at sea; ‘Storm Surge’ and ‘Hurricane Hunter’, the first family raft slides at sea – and ‘Storm Chasers’, which Royal Caribbean claims is ‘cruising’s first mat-racing duo’.

The waterpark will be on Thrill Island, which Royal Caribbean trumpets as a ‘lost island adventure where vacationers can test their limits and scale new heights’.

Icon of the Seas will also debut the line’s first swim-up bar at sea – called ‘Swim & Tonic’ – and ‘Royal Bay Pool’, the ‘largest pool at sea’. Both of these features will be on ‘Chill Island’.

The suspended infinity pool, meanwhile, will be in an area called The Hideaway and surrounded by a multi-level sun terrace with whirlpools.

Once guests have dried off they’re sure to be lured to ‘AquaDome’, a ‘transformational place unlike any other’ that’s perched at the top of the ship.

Royal Caribbean describes it as a ‘tranquil oasis by day’, where guests can enjoy a bite or drink while soaking up wraparound ocean views and gazing at an ‘awe-inspiring waterfall’.

By night, we’re told, the venue becomes ‘a vibrant place that’s great for a night out, complete with restaurants, bars and aqua shows’.

The vessel will sail seven-night Caribbean voyages throughout 2024. And in 2025? Another Icon-class ship will be launching. Watch this space.

Royal Caribbean said: ‘Since we revealed Icon of the Seas in October 2022, we have seen an incredible reaction. This interest contributed to the single largest bookings day and highest volume booking week in Royal Caribbean’s 54-year history when we opened Icon for sale. The ship has continued to be one of the strongest preforming in our fleet with sailings across its maiden season sold out. In fact, we have seen the one-of-a-kind Ultimate Family Townhouse sold across all of 2023.

‘With a more than 50-year history in building incredible ships and delivering memorable vacations to millions of guests, we are excited to officially welcome it to the fleet in January 2024.’

Visit royalcaribbean.com for more information.

UK’s biggest pension fund loses £16bn in LDI debacle

• Universities Superannuation Scheme handles pensions of higher education staff
• It is one of the few final salary schemes that is still open to new joiners
• It invested heavily in controversial liability-driven investments despite warnings

By Patrick Tooher

Updated: 06:56 EDT, 30 July 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

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A TikToker who left behind her life in Las Vegas to live in Scotland has revealed the biggest culture shocks that came with the move.

Lua Rodriguez Murphy met her now-husband, a Scot, while he was holidaying at the hotel she worked at in Las Vegas. After they got engaged, they decided to move in together in Glasgow where they now live with their three children.

Lua, originally from California, makes candid videos about adjusting to life in Scotland as an American, and she’s starting to build up a significant fanbase, with nearly 30,000 followers to date.

Speaking to MailOnline Travel, the 33-year-old lists out the things that surprised her the most about life in Scotland – with free healthcare from the NHS at the top of the list.

She says: ‘I remember going to the doctor for the first time here and I asked my doctor how much the cost would be. She looked at me like I had two heads and said it was free! I couldn’t wrap my head around that so when I walked out, I stopped by reception to reconfirm and she said I didn’t owe anything because my care was covered by the NHS.’

Now Lua even has a job working for the NHS, which she loves. The mum-of-one says: ‘I love working in the NHS because I like working in a country that truly believes that a nation owes its citizens the right to healthcare regardless of ability to pay and without having different levels of healthcare available based on someone’s status or economic standing.’

But free healthcare wasn’t the only aspect of Scottish life that took some adjusting to – Lua found some surprises in the way British homes are designed.

One thing she found strange was the ‘light switches outside the bathroom’. She explains: ‘I remember arriving at my husband’s flat for the first time and feeling around the wall in the bathroom in complete darkness trying to find the light switch. It wasn’t until after a solid five minutes he told me it was outside the door.’

Another, she reveals, is ‘windows not having window screens to protect the bugs from flying in’.

There’s a contrast between Scottish and American diets, too, she reveals.

Lua reflects: ‘Scottish food is, in general, a lot less processed and treated than American food. The portion sizes are also more suitable to a single person’s needs.

‘Also, the [UK-wide] sugar tax was surprising. I had never heard of it before! I think it’s beneficial though because it helps reduce obesity.’

She has well and truly warmed to Scottish cuisine, she reveals. Lua says she ‘can’t live without’ tea cakes now and Irn Bru is ‘forever stocked’ in her home now.

Shopping for food was another culture shock, she reveals.

In one video, she says: ‘I remember the first time I went to the grocery store by myself and the cashier [handed] me my receipt and went: “That’s you, pal”. I was like, “What? That’s me what?”‘ I didn’t know that that meant that was the end of the transaction.’

She continues: ‘Another thing that I’d never seen before I first moved here… the cashiers at probably every grocery store that I’ve been to, they sit down when they’re putting through your groceries. I’ve never seen that before. I remember the first time me and my husband went to Sainsbury’s I was like, “The cashier is sitting down”. And he’s like: “Yeah, do you expect them to stand for like nine hours, are you kidding me?”‘

The NHS worker adds: ‘On top of that, they don’t even bag your stuff. Americans would have a heart attack if nobody bagged their groceries. Here they toss your stuff at you and you literally have to bag it and that’s how it is. That was wild to me, I never had seen that before.’

The worst thing about life in Scotland, she notes, is driving around roundabouts. She says: ‘Not kidding, I had never experienced a roundabout in my life prior to moving here. Much of my fear of roundabouts is from my lack of familiarity and experience with them. They just seem so chaotic to me!’

On the other hand, the best about Scottish living, she says is ‘hands down, the people’. She explains: ‘Everyone is so chatty, and welcoming and easy to talk to. And so, so funny! Scottish humour truly is something else.’

She feels that when it comes to education, the Scots do it better. Lua says: ‘Education. Scotland is a nation where a first-class, world-leading education is accessible to all. I’m grateful that my children will be able to go to college for free! Student debt is so hard to pay off in the U.S and it really discourages people from pursuing a career because it’s so expensive and the interest in loans are so high.’

But she finds that Americans take the lead when it comes to customer service. She says: ‘I think Americans… go above and beyond when it comes to keeping a customer happy. I also feel Americans are so enthusiastic and great at entertaining. Basketball games, baseball games, pep rallies and entertainment are all so much better back home. They love getting the crowd involved, handing out prizes, doing dance cams, cheerleading and more! 

‘Even at the university level, college stadiums are filled to the brim with people watching young athletes play! Which I don’t think is very common here.’

What are the main differences between Scots and Americans? Lua says: ‘I think enthusiasm. Americans get so excited and giddy over the smallest of things! I feel Scottish people are sometimes a bit more reserved. Overall though, I think we’re all more alike than different.’

All in all, she’s thrilled with her life in Scotland, she reveals, saying: ‘I initially didn’t think I’d move to Scotland, but after a lot of thinking I decided to make the move and leave my budding career behind. It was definitely a sacrifice but I love my life here and I’m so happy!’

A friend of the British billionaire missing on a trip to dive to the Titanic has said she fears his submersible is trapped on the sea bed.

Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian explorer, said she knew Hamish Harding, 58, would be ‘calm’ amid the crisis.

He is one of five people on board a submersible, which at 4am on Sunday began its descent to the resting place of the Titanic, nearly 13,000 feet below the surface.

The round trip – for which participants pay $250,000 – usually takes eight hours. But contact with the mothership was lost one hour and 45 minutes into the trip, before reaching the wreck, and rescuers are now engaged in a race against time to try and recover the submersible and its crew.

‘My biggest fear is knowing that they are trapped, without being able to get help,’ said Mikkelsen.

‘There is no one who can reach him on the bottom.’

Mikkelsen, a cinematographer specializing in extreme environments, said she was deeply concerned by the fact the crew missed their ascent window – their expected time to surface.

On Monday afternoon, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said the submersible has 96 hours of emergency oxygen on board, based on information received from the vessel operator.  

‘My fear is that they didn’t make their last ascent window,’ Mikkelsen told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation.

‘They didn’t. We are starting to make worst case scenarios.’

G. Michael Harris, a Titanic expedition leader, said he knew several of those on board, and the outlook was grim.

He told Fox News’s Jesse Watters that there was oxygen on board and CO2 scrubbers, but ultimately there was no magic solution.

‘Just not feeling good about it,’ he said.

‘When we deploy it’s usually a two and a half hour drop down to the wreck site itself.

‘We go down 3,980 meters. We spiral down, a corkscrew action, about three degrees per second to land right basically in front of the bow of Titanic.

‘Once we get down there we begin our grid searches and our decay and everything that goes on with Titanic.’

Harris said the worst situation would be an implosion of the hull around 3,200 meters.

‘I don’t see anything that can happen at this point. When you are talking 6,000lbs per square inch, it is a dangerous environment.

‘More people have been to outer space than this depth of the ocean.’

He said you have to ‘do everything perfect by the book’, and it was ‘not looking good’. 

Mikkelsen said Harding acted as a mentor to her, and was well aware of the risks he took.

‘Hamish is an explorer at heart and this is one of the things he wanted to explore, on his checklist,’ she said.

‘Hamish knows the risks before he starts.

‘I know that Hamish will be calm, they will work together through their checklist of options.’

The mothership, MV Polar Prince, set off from Newfoundland on Saturday bound for the spot above the Titanic wreck, 370 miles away.

The submersible went into the water in the early hours of Sunday.

On board were Harding, French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet; and CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush. The other two passengers have not been named.

The submersible – it is not a submarine, because it is not independent and relies on a mothership – lost contact with the mothership one hour 45 minutes into its descent.

It takes two and a half hours to descend to the wreck. 

Analysts believe it could have lost power, or sunk and perhaps became trapped on the wreck. Some initially suggested it perhaps surfaced and was bobbing without power, but that seems an increasingly remote possibility.

There were 96 hours of air left on the submersible as of Monday afternoon, and the U.S. Coast Guard said they are engaged in a race against time. 

There are no rescue submarines in the U.S. Coast Guard that are able to reach the depths of the Titanic. 

Harding holds the Guinness World Record for the longest duration spent at the bottom of the sea.

The London-born adventurer set it in 2021, after diving to the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, and traversing it for four hours and 15 minutes.

It was one of three Guinness world records he has earned.

He set another one for the longest distance, three miles, covered at the bottom of the ocean. 

His first was set in 2019, for the fastest circumnavigation of the earth via North and South Poles in a Gulfstream 650ER business jet – with Mikkelsen filming the adventure. 

Last year he went into space.

The father of two – who is friends with astronaut Buzz Aldrin – said recently: ‘I used to read the book of Guinness World Records regularly as a child. I always wondered how I could get into it. I did not think I could do it.

‘And I didn’t want to do something stupid – like setting a record for the number of ping-pong balls bounced in a day, or something like that.’

As the frantic search for the Titanic submersible was underway Monday, family members asked for prayers for Harding as his latest adventure went awry.

The aviator, businessman and explorer is no stranger to perilous expeditions.

He told an interviewer in 2021 how his submarine, Challenger Deep, had sustained a damaged thruster during his journey to the ‘truly spectacular’ Mariana Trench, which lies seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. 

‘The sub has many safety features, including four days’ reserve of oxygen, water and emergency rations,’ he said. 

‘The only problem is that there is no other sub that is capable of going down there to rescue you. It will take three years to build another one. 

‘So, having four days of supply doesn’t make a difference really. 

‘If something goes wrong, you are not coming back.’

Harding, who runs an aviation company in Dubai, also has the distinction of taking the oldest man – moon landing astronaut Aldrin, at the age of 86 – and the youngest, his 12-year-old son, to the South Pole.

‘Buzz is an old friend of mine,’ he said. 

‘We had always talked about going to the South Pole together and we finally did it in 2016.’

An only child, Harding was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1964, and has degrees in natural sciences and chemical engineering from Cambridge University.

Last year, Harding was one of six astronauts to go to space on Blue Origin’s fifth human spaceflight aboard its New Shepard rocket.

And before another trip, to the North Pole two months prior to going into space, he said: ‘People, especially as they grow older, tend to give up on their dreams. When I think of something unusual, I just try to find ways to make it happen.’

‘Huge fire’ breaks out at Germany’s biggest theme park after ‘two or three loud bangs’, sparking visitor evacuation

• A huge mushroom of black smoke was seen at Europa-Park in Germany 
• Witnesses at the park said there had been an ‘explosion’ with loud bangs’ 

By Eirian Jane Prosser

Published: 11:42 EDT, 19 June 2023 | Updated: 16:15 EDT, 19 June 2023