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.

Tsunami

A tsunami is a giant wave or series of waves caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption on the seabed. On December 26, 2004 an earthquake of around 9 on the Richter Scale off the north-western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia caused a tsunami that devastated coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Southern India and Indian Ocean islands.

Here are two videos that show the terrible consequences of this phenomenon.

Madrid project

Here are a few resources that might come in handy for your research for the Year 7 Madrid project:

Local Authority information on the economy of the city.

The physical geography of the Madrid region.

A Wikipedia article on Madrid.

Google map.

The Madrid metro.

San Francisco earthquake project

You will find plenty of useful information to help you with your San Francisco earthquake reports at the following websites:

A US Geological Survey report on the 1906 earthquake.

There is a stack of useful information on both the 1906 and 1989 quakes at the Virtual Museum of San Francisco.

A BBC report on the 1989 earthquake.

There are some eye-witness accounts of the 1906 eruption at this website.

Accounts from the survivors of the 1989 earthquake.

For general information on San Francisco try the city's official website.

And here is some old newsreel footage of the 1906 earthquake

Mount St Helens eruption, May 1980

After nearly 200 years of inactivity, Mount St Helens in Washington state in the USA erupted in May 1980. The explosion, which was estimated to have the equivalent power of 500 atomic bombs, killed 57 people in this sparsely populated area and had a devastating effect on local wildlife, destroying thousands of deer, elk and bear as well as countless birds and small mammals. For further details on the eruption look at the following website.

Here is an informative video on the eruption and a useful animation about how volcanoes are formed.

Volcanoes

We will be starting a new topic on earthquakes and volcanoes in Year 8. So here are a selection of videos to provide a taster of what we will be studying.

The Aral Sea - environmental catastrophe

The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth biggest inland sea, but misuse of its water has caused it to shrink by two-thirds and scientists predict that it will dry up altogether in little more than 10 years wreaking havoc on the climate, environment and people who live in the area. Watch a video about it here.

Located in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea disaster began when the government ordered the water from the rivers that supplied the sea to be diverted so that vast areas of cotton fields could be irrigated. The use of the water meant the sea could no longer be replenished and began to dry up leaving beds of salt polluted by high concentrations of pesticides that were used by the farmers when growing the cotton.

The fishing industry that once thrived on the sea has been destroyed and the climate has changed with drier summers and colder winters. Old fishing boats are now stranded in a desert landscape some 80 kilometres from the shoreline.

The chemicals have caused a dramatic increase in illness with extremely high infant mortality rates. Death from chronic gastritis and kidney disease has increased by 15%, heart disease has doubled and cancer has increased by 1000% (cancer of the oesophagus is the highest in the world, while the death from tuberculosis is 21 times higher than it was in the 1960s. There is also evidence that local people are suffering genetic damage.

But despite warnings of the catastrophe, Uzbekistan continues to rely on the production of cotton.

See some images of the way the sea has almost disappeared can be seen here.