Mumbai and the Dharavi slum

Made famous by the box office hit Slumdog Millionaire, Asia's largest slum area Dharavi is to be found within the sprawling Indian city of Mumbai, the country's thriving financial capital (click here for a travel guide to the Mumbai). Home to over a million people, thousands of small businesses are crammed in amongst its cluttered streets and ramshackle dwellings. The Indian state government has plans to redevelop the area and turn it into a modern township. But what effect will the scheme have on Dharavi and its residents?

Find out the answer by taking a look at the following resources.
A good place to start is the interactive video produced by National Geographic. You can also have a look at the You Tube video below which walks you through Dharavi and a news report on the plans to redevelop the area.



There is some interesting information on the Geography Resources Online site and also at Cool Geography. There are a host of good articles about Dharavu on the web too, for example The New York Times, the Economist and this one on urban development in LEDCs. It was the the box office hit Slumdog Millionaire that brought the area to the attention of many, but it wasn't a fairytale ending for all those who featured in the film.


Finally here is a short film about another of India's slums, this time in the Bihar area.

Megacities

Sixty years ago there were only two megacities - cities with over 10 million inhabitants - on the planet: New York and Tokyo. Now there are 23 and by 2025 the UN predicts there will be 37, all but eight in the developing world. The Guardian has a special interactive report investigating this trend - take a look at it here. Then have a look at the data.
The pictured city Shanghai is home to at least 20 million people, half of whom are immigrants from other parts of China.

Yellowstone Park: Supervolcano

Yellowstone park sits on top of one of the biggest volcanoes on earth - in fact it is a supervolcano that has erupted several times with massive force over the course of the last two million years. Geysers like Old Faithful are a tell-tale sign that volcanic activity is going on just beneath the surface. The Independent published an article on supervolcanoes earlier this year.
Click on the following links from the National Park to find out more about the Yellowstone Volcano.
The ingredients of a geyser.
What is driving the geyser.
Where is the Volcano?
Old Faithful Webcam.

Mount St Helens eruption

Mount St Helens in Washington State in the western United States erupted in May 1980 after two months of earthquakes and steam venting. The eruption caused the entire north face of the mountain to collapse, with the pyroclastic flow destroying everything in its path, melting glaciers on the mountain and then causing massive mud slides (lahars). The volcanic cloud spread across the USA in just three days and encircled the earth in two weeks.  This National Geographic video provides a great introduction to the topic, explaining how volcanoes are formed. Then take a look at this Discovery Channel video about the effects and this clip on the devastating effects of the Mount St Helens eruption.

 

Plate Tectonics

The idea that the earth's plates are in constant movement can be a confusing notion, but this extract from the series "Earth, the Power of the Planet" by Dr Iain Stewart gives an excellent explanation of the processes that are taking place.

World Population

It is estimated that the world's population exceeded 7 billion in March 2012. Under current projections the global population is expected to be as high as 10 billion by 2050.

How can the earth and its finite resources cope with such the population explosion? What will it mean for each one of us and for our children? How will our lives and environment change? Are we heading for impending disaster? Take a look at some of the following videos and resources to help you ponder these questions?








Have a look at this Population clock too.

Japan earthquake

The earthquake and Tsunami in Japan has had devastating effects on the country, killing over 10,000 people and severely damaging one of the country's nuclear power stations with the very real danger of a catastrophic meltdown. Take a look at this interactive map from Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail to examine the effects of this disaster and look at the for the latest on the situation. Also have a look at the excellent and regularly updated BBC site on the earthquake.
Below is a video clip of the effects of the disaster using before and after photographs of some of the affected areas.

For the causes of earthquakes and tsunamis and for information on related natural disasters, take a look at the other posts on this subject on the blog.

More map skills

If you want to brush up on your maps skills, begin by taking a look at some previous links by clicking here, but I've also got some new ones too.

For a start, you can try this simple directions game. Then there is this online activity on compass bearings.

There is an introduction to basic map skills at this BBC site and for a more thorough look at maps there is always the excellent OS Mapability and Maptivity pages.

If you think you know your OS symbols, you can also have a go at this symbols quiz.

Plate tectonics

For a very detailed and informative explanation of plate tectonics and the structure of the earth try these two links on the Moorlands School website.
For some beautiful satellite images of volcanoes have a look at the NASA site.

Map skills

If you need to revise your map skills follow this link for help.
You can then try out one of the Ordnance Survey's tests on their excellent website. You can do them on directions, scale, symbols and grid references. Take a test and if you do well enough you can play a game too.
Here is a useful link to the symbols used on a 1:50,000 OS map. You will also find the symbols in the back of your text book.