Turkey earthquake

On Sunday 23rd October, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit eastern Turkey. The epicentre of the quake was near the city of Van and Ercis.

Useful links (particularly for Unit 4 A2 Geographers!)...
Turkey earthquake death toll passes 500 The Telegraph, 27th October 2011
Turkey earthquake: Teenage boy found after four days BBC News, 28th October 2011
Boy Pulled Uninjured From Turkey's Quake Wreckage NYTimes, 28th October 2011
Turkey Earthquake: building negligence amounts to murder The Guardian, 26th October 2011 (excellent evaluative article - useful for analysis!)
Turkey Earthquake: Government will accept foreign aid BBC News, 26th October 2011
Photographs from National GeographicTurkey earthquake: Death toll passes 430 BBC News, 25th October 2011
Earthquake Adds Even More Pressure to relations between Turks, Kurds Voice of America, 27th October 2011 (good for Unit 4 'values and attitudes' part of the mark scheme!)
Timeline: major earthquakes in Turkey Reuters, 27th October 2011
A Geoglogist's Eye View of Van Earthquake Scientific American, 27th October 2011 (good explanation of tectonics and causes)
New Insights into the October 2011 Van Earthquake Earthquake-Report (CEDIM), 25th October 2011
Turkey Quake casts spotlight on political fault lines Monsters & Critics, 27th October 2011
After quake, Turkey has proven it can get by on its own Haaretz.com, 29th October 2011
Turkey still not ready for next big one The National, 17th August 2009
The Next Big Quake? Foreign Policy, 21st January 2010

Don't forget to check out the 'related articles' that feature in some of the links above. This will broaden your research, whilst still keeping it focused on the Turkey earthquake.

GIS Mission: Wind Power Location

For Miss Blackmore's year 8 class...

You were set a homework task to have a go at the GIS zone mission on wind power location in preparation for the Sustainability assessment. I will be asking you three questions about the mission that you will only know the answer to if you have completed the task. Once you finish the wind power mission, why not try some of the others!!

Click here to take you straight to the GIS Missions.

The Day After Tomorrow

8x2 have finished their assessment one week before the next rotation, so we are wrapping up the Sustainability unit by looking at the depiction of climate change and the potential effects in the film 'The Day After Tomorrow'. We are ultimately deciding whether it is scientific truth, environmental pressure, or just a disaster movie. Here's the YouTube trailer for the film...



We discussed whether the hailstorm scene in Tokyo is realistic or not. Check out this YouTube video...


Now what do you think?

My sustainable house

Two excellent simulations about sustainable housing. Click on the images to take you to the sites!

Climate change in our World: A new vision of climate change through Google Earth

Explore and learn about the impacts of climate change and find out how you can make a difference with Climate Change in our World. The Met Office Hadley Centre, British Antarctic Survey and UK Government have harnessed Google Earth technology to present you with an interactive animation showing how climate change and global temperature rises could affect our world over the next 100 years.

When you click on the Met Office or DFID icons, a boxes appear providing various information on how people in that place are coping with the effects of climate change.

Find the KML file that will create the layer for Google Earth here. (Make sure you have Google Earth installed on your computer!). This video demonstrates how to use layer.

Smart choices for the carbon conscious...

Brought to you by the BBC

Want to know what actions can have the biggest impact on your carbon emissions? Bloom helps you choose actions tailored to your home and lifestyle, then lets you compare them by how much CO2 they save, how cheap they are or how easy other Bloomers have found them.

Experts at the BBC have studied over 50 things you can do to tackle climate change (with many more to follow soon). Each action is represented by a seed. Their 'gardener' will ask questions to identify which ones suit you best. When you find an action you plan to do, or one you've already done, plant the seed and watch it bloom. Your collection of Blooms shows the progress you've made!

Click on the image to go to their site...perhaps you can could have a go as a household?

Youtube videos on climate change

Year 8 have been studying Sustainability this term. As part of the unit, we looked at various youtube videos connected to climate change.

Here's the most recent Act on CO2 advert...

Here's a couple of your favourites