Southern England struck by Earthquake

 An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the richter scale struck Southern England at 8.18am this morning (Saturday 28th April 2007). The map to the left shows the location of the quake (source credit: U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior) – further maps of the quake (including seismicity) can be found here. It is also worth looking at the location on the Worldwide Earthquake locator (try altering the map to add on fault lines, plate names etc.)  

News Articles:
Earthquake shakes part of Kent (BBC News)
Eyewitness accounts of the earthquake (BBC News)
Homes evacuated after earthquake hits Kent (Times Online)
Photographs of the earthquake damage (Sky News)
Earthquake shakes Southern England (SKy News)
The House shook “Its chaos down here” (Sky News)
Homes crumble as earthquake rocks Kent (This London.co.uk)
In pictures: Kent Earthquake (BBC News)

Q&A – Kent earthquake (BBC News)

Video Links:
Interview with BGS on initial thoughts on Earthquake (Sky News Video link)
The View from above (Sky News video link)
Chimneys and Roofs damaged by quake (Sky News Video link)
Eyewitness Interview (Sky News video link) It is also worth looking at the location of the quake in the Worldwide Earthquake locator (you can alter the map to display fault lines, plate boundaries etc.)

To find out more about earthquakes in the UK – have a look at some of the links on the Advanced Extension Blog.

Map Source: Credit U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior

Australia is suffering from its worst drought ever!

Australia is currently suffering from its worst drought on record. In the Murray Darling Basin (the main irrigation area of Australia) it is reported that unless sufficient rain falls in the next 6-8 weeks there will not be any water allocations for irrigation until May 2008. The two main rivers supplying the area are at such low levels there will soon only be enough water to meet supplies of drinking water. The drought has already had a massive impact on farmers with milk yields already down and many farms are facing ruin unless there is significant rainfall soon, a threat that is becoming increasingly real with this weeks warning that irrigation to prime farmland will have to be cut unless the rains come soon. Already many rivers have been reduced to a trickle and water restrictions have been put in place in many urban areas.

You can read more about this in this excellent article from the Independent “Australia’s epic drought: the situation is grim“

Also have a look at these amazing (and very worrying!) photographs of the drought situation from the Guardian which give a real sense of what the current problem is!

For more detailed information sources on this see the Advanced Extension Blog.

Japan’s Ageing Population

This is an issue that Year 11 and 12 students will have been looking at in preparation for the forthcoming GCSE and AS exam’s. Japan’s slow population growth has been a cause for concern for a number of years, with concerns that a reduced workforce resulting from fewer young people will mean that Japan will be in a position where they find it will struggle to support the elderly. In 2000, one in six people in Japan were over the age of 65. This excellent audio slideshow considering the issues surrounding Japan’s rapidly ageing society was published on the web by the guardian today and is well worth looking at / listening to (particularly Year 11 and Year 12 students!)

See this written article “Japan’s age-old problem” for further reading.

Globalisation

What is it? Globalisation refers to the increasing social, economic, political and technological global interconnectedness.

Finding out more.. Year 8 have recently looked at this term in their studies of chocolate and the fairtrade industry and indeed started to consider the role of globalisation in the Fashion Industry through their study of a pair of jeans and all the different countries and stages involved in their manufacture. Year 13 will also have been studying globalisation but at a higher level.

For GCSE and A’level students, this excellent new site from the BBC world service explores the ideas behind Globalisation through four case studies, including the Fast Food Industry and what they call ‘the global music machine’ - find out more about how western pop music is listened to and sold around the world and get an insight into the power of the fast food industry and the influence that companies such as McDonalds have on the lives of those producing food and those consuming it!

For those of you in KS3, this site from Global eye provides an interesting insight into Globalisation and has some great case studies on the Global Fashion Industry and The Sugar Trade – which may well be useful to those of you still working on your Fairtrade projects to help explain what is meant by globalisation and interconnectedness.

GCSE Revision

Year 11 and the VI form Geographers are now on countdown to their summer exams. I will be posting links to support the VI form AS/A2 exams over the next few weeks. As a starting point for Year 11 here are a few resources from BBC Bitesize that may help you with your revision. Keep checking back for further links to GCSE revision resources which will be posted here.

Bitesize TV – the popular Bitesize revision programmes are to be repeated in April – you will need to set your video recorders though as they are on very early in the morning!

Bitesize Revision BBC TWO – GCSE Bitesize Geography

• Global Issues 26 APR ‘07 02.00 – 04.00 120 minutes
• Human geography 25 APR ‘07 02.00 – 04.00 120 minutes
• Physical geography 25 APR ‘07 04.00 – 06.00 120 minutes

Geography Audio Topics - the BBC have recently published some podcast style audio clips to help with Geography Revision – they can be downloaded here.

The Bitesize Geography Homepage with revision on a variety of topics can be found here (don’t panic if you see topics here that you haven’t covered – remember different exam boards specify different topics – only look at those you know we have studied).

Thanks to Geography – You’d be Lost Without it for the heads up on the TV schedule!

Climate Change around the World

With climate change being a very real issue and one which is consistently in the news, this is a topic area which you should ensure you are fully aware of in preparation for the exams. This excellent article from the BBC looks at the impacts of climate change around the world. It focuses not only on the impacts of climate change in specific areas of the world, but also considers the impacts on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, industry and health. The site is well worth exploring through clicking on the interactive map and can be accessed by clicking here or on the map above.

Welcome to GeoBlogBytes

Welcome to GeoBlogBytes the new department blog for St Ivo School Geography Department. Along with our dedicated GCSE blog (GeobytesGCSE) and GeoBytes (the department website) this will help to keep you uptodate with the latest Geographical news and will also help you to keep uptodate with your homework and coursework tasks (see individual year group pages for a blog of workset, links and due dates). The blog will be updated regularly with news and relevant information for all year groups.