Quality Y10 Tectonics Vids

Mr Strachan's Y10 class have been making videos about plate tectonics. See the examples below:

Could you do the same?

R.Sanghera


Toby

Pakistan Earthquake

Below is a storify of various sources showing the causes, effects and responses to the earthquake in Pakisatn on tuesday the 24th of September:

What Influence the effects of earthquakes?

The map below shows major earthquakes (magnitude in red circles) and their effects (blue squares = no of deaths). Investigate what they show using the mouse to click symbols for further info then try to work out why they differ so greatly.


View Larger Map

Lost Continent Discovered

·         21^st February 2013: Scientists have discovered huge pieces of a continent from millions of years ago in the Indian Ocean.

According to the “National Geoscience”: scientists from England, South Africa, Norway and Germany have discovered land which is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and has a width of 25- 30 km from 50-80 million years ago from a continent called Rodinia.

Scientists think that thisland was removed as a result of volcanic explosions which broke the land off from the main continent. Then gigantic waves caused by earth quakes sent the island to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Scientists named this piece “Mauritia”.

Scientists say that the continents today are all detached from Rodinia and made today’s world in the last 1 billion years.

It is 2 thousand km away from Africa’s southeast, in the 115 islands of the Seychelles and the island of Maritius. While scientists were investigating the sand pieces there, they discovered that the pieces belonged to a volcanic explosion which had happened 9 million years ago.

According to the Norwegian scientists, the pieces of the sand which they took the sample from Seychelles include Zirconium. They thought the Zirconium in the sand came from another piece which had met the bottom of the Indian Ocean as a result of the volcano and the waves.

With sonar and seismic submarines, it has been proved that there was this land with a width of 25- 30 km under the Indian Ocean.

By N. Aslanoba (y9)

Amazing video of Japanese Earthquake

The video below gives an outstanding view of the buildup in terms of groundshaking to the Japanese earthquake of 2011 and the aftershocks that followed. It is worth watching through with sound as well. As the year goes on, the regularity of earthquakes in the area is made clear, as is the location of the boundaries with relation to Japan. However as March the 10th/11th commences, there is a huge release of energy that takes some months to subside.

This is an excellent visual representation of the scale and sudden onset of the event.

A2 self directed research - English Earthquakes and Vesuvius

As part of their global issues study, the A2 students have had time for their own research to satisfy questions they have had which relate to the tectonic hazards element of the course. Below are two excellent posts from the A2 global issues blog bsglobalissues.blogspot.co.uk

Read on below:

Earthquake In England?

I was wondering why there are occasional EQ's in the UK even though we are not close to a plate boundary, where science tells us EQ's should occur.

In my research I found that the key to it all lies in the African and Eurasion plates movement. These have created multiple fault lines as shown in this image - 

They occur more than we think - http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/ - this shows the amount over the last 50 days with more detail within them.

Even the Daily Mail have got involved - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1312608/UK-overdue-earthquake-kill-scores-people-moment.html - A slighlty exaggerated state of event but good detail nonetheless.

J.P.Strode

Mt.Vesuvius eruption 79 AD

For my research today, I tried to answer the question of why Pompeii was so badly affected by the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius in 79 AD. Pyroclastic flows swept the city and everything was buried under an extremely hot layer of ash. The city was preserved in time and there was one thing which astounded archaeologists the most when they rediscovered the city. This was the human remains which were found on the site. Although the exact number of people who died in the eruption is unknown, it is predicted that a large proportion of the city's population was killed. There are a few reasons which could explain why the eruption had such a big impact on the city's population. Firstly, although the locals were aware of the plumes of smoke rising from the volcano (a journal was found documenting the signs leading up to the eruption) no precautions were taken. They thought of it as the gods letting off steam therefore no actions were taken until it was too late. Like volcanic eruptions in the modern world, tremors and seismic activities were felt leading up to the eruption. They also chose to ignore this as they were unaware of what could come next. When the volcano finally erupted, the people were caught by surprise and didn't know how to react. Some chose to flee the city and it is likely these people survived as the only affect on them was ash deposits. Those who chose to hide in the safety of their homes were the ones killed. As the pyroclastic flow swept the city, the infrastructure was unable to withstand the speed and temperatures and thus people were buried and burned. The main reason why the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius was so devastating was the lack of awareness. In the modern world, this could still be the case particularly in LEDCs. If large volcanoes are not monitored, locals could be at an increased risk as precautions and responses will not be taken to ensure they are safe. This shows that raising awareness and having an efficient system of response is vital in reducing the impacts of natural hazards, even in the modern world.

K.S.Chan

Follow NOAA Expedition to Ring of Fire Live

There is an excellent site set up where you can watch a live expedition to an undersea area of the ring of fire. There is plenty of video available and maps of the area.

There is a live video feed of the expedition as well.

Click the link below to see the video:

http://trap.it/#!traps/id/e4e03aa0-beef-4216-b937-2a304adec440/jump/6ArT7ibRd0064csiZaZs

Causes of Kashmir Earthquake

Some excellent research took place today as 13D created a strong case study of the causes of the Kashmir Earthquake 2005.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Haiti Earthquake - excellent read

J.Taylor has written a genuinely very interesting case study on the causes of the Haiti Earthquake. Click the image to open it in a new tab to read.

Chile Earthquake 2010

S.Holland has produced this excellent study on the 2010 Chile Earthquake. Click the image to open it in a new tab and read it.

Excellent Study on the Causes of The Mount St Helen's eruption

J.Stroomer has produced this excellent study on the causes of the eruption at Mt St helens in 1980:

Mt. St. Helens is a composite volcano within the Cascade Range in southern Washington, approximately 50 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon. Though Mt. St. Helens is approximately 40,000-years old, it is considered a relatively young, active volcano. The Juan de Fuca plate is converging with the North American Plate. The lava forms as the oceanic crust is subducted under the continental crust at the convergent plate boundary.

The eruption on May 18th 1980 is the biggest that it has ever experienced. The build-up to the eruption was a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an inflowing of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a huge bulge on Mount St. Helens' north slope. This s called a cryptodome and can be seen on the images below, it makes a striking impact on the side of the volcano. The scientists and geologists studying the area say

that in the weeks leading up to the eruption it was expanding at a rate of 6ft a day in some places of the dome.

An earthquake, measuring at 4.2 on the Richter scale, at 8:32:17 a.m. caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, exposing the partly molten, gas rich rock in the volcano to lower pressure. This resulted in a landslide where more than half a cubic mile of material was released. This can be seen in the diagram below.

A lot of pressure had built up as this was the first eruption for 123 years. Although it was not without warning, on March 25th the seismographs started to climax at about noon reaching peak levels on the next two days, including one earthquake that measured 5.1 on the Richter scale. A total of 174 shocks, of magnitude 2.6 or greater, in the following two days. This then continued through April and May with 5 earthquakes above magnitude 4 or greater per day in April. This then increased to 8 per day the week before May 18th. There is a before and after shot below to show the impact on the landscape.

Useful Links:

http://www.platetectonics.com/book/page_3.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2dreOI8gI&feature=related

Earthquake close to Costa Rica

There was an earthquake close to Costa Rica this afternoon. See what information you can find out about the event using some of the internet sources in this presentation and under the latest news tab to the right:

Amazing systems for local disaster recovery

This is a very impressive video about 2 sisters and their response to a Tornado in their home town. As you watch, consider the following questions: would their technology be appropriate in all areas of the globe? Will there always be donations/volunteers? What enabled them and others to respond successfully?

UNDP Act Now campaign

The UNDP have a campaign on to increase preparedeness and spending on disasters to reduce their developmental effects and spending in the long run. Have a look at the video below which is part of their campaign but als o highlights the issues excellently for those in the upper sixth and year ten particularly this term.

Another Earthquake in Northern Italy...

Northern Italy Earthquake - 20/05/2012

Storify On Izmit Earthquake