Nepal Earthquake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32460972


A powerful earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale has struck Nepal in an area between the capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara.  Sadly, loss of life and damage to the built environment is severe.

Its Options time

Whether you are considering Geography at GCSE, AS or A2 or just because you care watch this clip:




If you do want any advice about studying Geography please come and talk to us.

Those of you thinking about GCSE may like to flick through this:

GCSE Options

View more presentations from AndrewMarshall.

Census 2011 Deprivation Maps

Another very useful site for human geogrpahers. Explore your home town and discover the levels of deprivation. These are calculated using a basket of indicators all combined into one figure. The data is based on the latest census information. However, please be very careful about making value judgements based on this evidence. Follow this link to the Guardian web site.

The Geography of GCSE results!

To get a list of the areas click this link.
Just for the record Hulme had a 95% pass rate.

Unemployment Map

A simple but effective GIS to show current trends in unemployment can be found here at the BBC. Look closely and you can see how the details change over time. You can even zoom in to see our home region.

Can you process this data further, maybe to produce a table of employment changes by local areas over the past 5 years? This could even be transformed into a graph.

This month's Wide World Magazine

For those of you studying GCSE

This month's contents include:
Improve your grade Aiming for an A*
Clean coal?
Wideworldweb Rising sea levels
Holding the coastline
Aerial view The Ganges-Brahmaputra delta
Focus on… Tropical rainforest
Global ecosystems Tropical rainforest

Copies are in the school library or available from Phillip Allan Publishers.

Population Crisis?

The balance of resources and population is a concern, or at least a matter of study, for us all. Geographers and non geogrpahers alike might be interested in this site when considering the stresses we create for our world. Globalis is an interactive world atlas where you decide what is to be displayed on the map. Globalis aims to create an understanding for similarities and differences in human societies, as well as how we influence life on the planet. This is primarily done using visual means.

Major artery closes for a few days

Those of you studying GCSE will know that part of the syllabus looks at the transport links between the UK and continental Europe.

The Channel Tunnel features quite prominently in this section as do the advantages and disadvantages of using it and the effect it has had on the Channel ports like Dover.

So what effect will a fire like today's have on the transport links in the SE of England?

It's nearly all over!

Back to school on Tuesday for all you pupils (the staff are in tomorrow!) and its official: the dullest August on record!

It could be worse we could be going to the Caribbean on holiday over the next few weeks - just as Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna get up a head of steam.

Keep an eye on their progress and any other hurricane developments by going to the National Hurricane Centre website: click on the link on the Geog Links below.

Drax uses biofuel

Drax Power Station the largest coal fired power station in the UK is beginning to use a mix of coal and biofuel to produce electricity. Drax contributes 7% of the National Grid's electricity.

It is mixing straw, a waste product from the nearby grain farms which is turned into pellets, with the coal. As well as these pellets Drax also mixes its coal with sawdust.


The need for this mix is not only because Drax produces 22 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide but also because of the rapid rise of the cost of coal. Coal prices have doubled this year and now cost the power station £209 per tonne.

Big chunk of ice!

A large chunk of an Arctic ice shelf has broken free of the northern Canadian coast, scientists say.

Nearly 20 sq km (eight sq miles) of ice from the Ward Hunt shelf has split away from Ellesmere Island, according to satellite pictures.

It is thought to be the biggest piece of ice shed in the region since 60 sq km of the nearby Ayles Ice Shelf broke away in 2005.

Scientists say further splitting could occur during the Arctic summer melt.

Cycling City

Bristol has become England's first "cycling city" in a £100m government scheme aimed at encouraging cycling.
The city intends to double the number of cyclists over the next three years with a series of innovations.
Sharing the funding will be York, Stoke, Blackpool, Cambridge, Chester, Colchester, Leighton Buzzard, Southend, Shrewsbury, Southport and Woking.
Among the features in Bristol will be the UK's first major bicycle rental network, modelled on a scheme in Paris.
The government is giving Bristol £11.4m to transform cycling by creating dedicated cycle lanes, better facilities and more training for children.

What good will it do?

Plans to use a state-of-the-art camera onboard a satellite to monitor deforestation levels in Africa's Congo Basin have been unveiled.
The high resolution RALCam3 camera, designed and built by UK scientists, will provide the first detailed view of the area's rate of forest cover loss.
The project is part of the Congo Basin Forest Fund, a £108m joint-initiative by the UK and Norwegian governments.
The fund aims to curb climate change by preventing deforestation in the region.

Japan is rocked

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes northern Honshu, Japan's main island killing 6 and injuring more than 140 people.

In this mountainous part of the island landslides triggered by the shaking earth covered homes and people.

Japan which is on the boundary of the Pacific Plate and Eurasian Plate is prone to earthquakes.

For more details about Japan's earthquake history click on the US Geolgoical website link in the Georgaphy link list below right.

Protesters storm a coal train

A train carrying coal to one of Britain's largest power stations was stopped by protestors and boarded this morning.

Thirty members of the group "Leave it in the Ground" stopped the train with a red flag and boarded it at Rawcliffe on the boundary between north and east Yorkshire. The train was carrying coal to Drax Power Station.

Leave it in the Ground is an organisation which protests against open cast mining.

Drax Power Station the largest coal fired station in the Uk claims to be the cleanest and most efficient power station in the UK.

Look at the two site and see what you think?

Second Homes - here there and everywhere

Not only was it a major item in the news but the debate on Second Homes also featured in todays AQA Syllabus B GCSE Paper 1.

A Second Home is a home bought, usually in resort areas for the use by the owners at weekends and during holidays.

The debate over Second Homes is one of great interest for Geographers. As many rural areas, especially National Parks have a high percentage of Second Homes; in some parts of the Lake District 60% of the dwellings are Second Homes. The debate has both advantages and disadvantages to the rural communities.

In todays news a report suggested that parts of the Welsh countryside could "lose its next generation of young people" because, despite their being over 18000 vacant properties in rural Wales the house prices were up to five times above the average wage: such prices were being forced up by the demand from city slickers wanting a quite rural retreat. For more information check out the news story on the BBC and also take a look at the Jeremy Vine Website on Radio two for different opinions on the debate.