Unit 4B

I’m not actually doing the unit 4B re-sit but I thought it’d be helpful if I went through some of it. I’ve picked something that everyone should have looked into; if you haven’t then I’ve done it for you.

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Asia-South/Bangladesh/

What does the Department for International Development do for Bangladesh?

Well according to their website the aims are to:

• Encourage private sector investment
• Ensuring the government is capable of financing and delivering social services
• Getting more children into better schools            
• Improving family planning and reducing maternal deaths

These aims can be interpreted as showing that the DfID want to improve equality throughout the country to create a more stable nation. Improving equality has many positive impacts; the biggest being that it empowers women thus giving them a voice. The increased choices in life women get once empowered can lead to a reduced birth rate, which reduces the dependency ratio and creates a more manageable population. This can be seen to be working as from 2008 to 2011 the birth rate has dropped by 6 from 29 to 23 (CIA world factbook). A more manageable population is useful when trying to deal with the preparation and aftermath of a cyclone.

The DfID are also investing a lot of money into education. 25% of the £148.8 million spent in Bangladesh in 2009-2010 was spent on education. That’s £37.2 million; the amount of money spent can be linked to the development module and to South Korea who also improved education to encourage high-tech TNCs into the country. TNCs have both positive and negative (as you should have written in the exam on Tuesday!) impacts and these will also apply if TNCs move into Bangladesh.

The general aim is to create a stable developed country that can look after itself without having to rely on aid from other nations.

There are also some useful links from the website that you should probably at:

• http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Case-Studies/2011/Letting-girls-decide-Tackling-child-marriage-and-early-pregnancy-in-Bangladesh/ Illustrates how the DfID are helping to empower women.
• http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Case-Studies/2010/Sowing-the-seeds-of-scuba-rice/ This shows what can be done to reduce the agricultural impacts of cyclones and flooding.
• http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Case-Studies/2009/Bangladeshs-women-learn-the-art-of-flood-survival/ Shows how empowering and educating women can help to reduce the impacts of flooding. 

Because I haven't been to the Unit 4B workshops I don't know what you have or haven't done, if this has been helpful then let me know and I'll do more of things like this. If it hasn't, let me know what would be helpful and I'll see if I can get round to doing it. 

End

So the exam is over. How'd everyone find it?
If you did the tectonics essay I hope the Haiti and Chile case study helped!

I don't have much to say, just thank you really. Thanks to everyone who's supported the blog, particularly our geography class and thanks to everyone who's read the posts. Thanks to both Nick and Millie for all the effort they've put in over the past couple of weeks in revision classes and having to put up with me for pretty much all of them. Especially thanks to Millie who's idea it was for this blog in the first place. I think it has started something bigger, in college anyway, where revision and extra help can be more interactive and accessible. We all know the geography facebook page is much better than moodle.

Of course most of all thanks to Vicky who's been my blog writing partner and has unrivaled enthusiasm for the subject!


If anyone has any comments about the blog, what you've found useful, what wasn't useful etc. then please could you let either me or Millie know as it'll be a great help for next years blog writers.

James

Case Study: Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

• Formed 23^rd August 2005 and dissipated 30^th August 2005. It struck New Orleans on 29^th August
• Highest wind speeds were 175 mph
• Lowest pressure 902 mbar
• Worst affected area was New Orleans
• Total confirmed deaths were 1,836; only 400 of these were outside New Orleans. This makes it deadliest US hurricane since 1928.
• Total damage $90.9 billion (2011 USD)

Why was hurricane Katrina so destructive?

• The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was abnormally active, possibly as a link to Global Climate Change warming the Atlantic ocean increasing the number and intensity of storms
• Hurricane Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico; the Gulf of Mexico is very warm water and is effectively like giving red bull to a hurricane. The intensity of the storm increased from a category 1 hurricane (which landed in Florida) to a category 3 hurricane when it landed in New Orleans. Obviously this is going to cause more damage
• The relief effort was poorly managed (more on this later), for an MDC of America’s stature and wealth the relief should have been much more efficiently
• New Orleans is on average between 1 and 2 feet below sea level with parts of it being 7 feet below. On average only 51% of the city is at or above sea level. The problem actually is that the levees constructed to keep the water out keep the water levels above the height of the city (see the diagram to compensate for my awful description…). This means it is very easily (and was very easily) flooded, the city just fills up like a bowl. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_Orleans_Levee_System.svg
• Louisiana is ranked 49^th in the US states for Human Development. The poorer quality of housing and education could have contributed to the large destruction. The lower affluence of the region also means that many were left without transport out of the city when the evacuation order was given.
• The storm surge extended up to 6 miles inland in some areas. By 31^st August 80% of New Orleans was under water with some areas 15 feet under.

How prepared was New Orleans?

• In 2001 FEMA identified the three biggest threats on life in the USA. 1.) A major hurricane hitting New Orleans 2.) A terrorist attack on New York 3.) A large earthquake in San Francisco. Partially as a result of this the engineer corps (responsible for maintaining New Orleans levees) investigated the cost to protect South East Louisiana but decided against it, as the recurrence of a category 5 hurricane in New Orleans was 1 in 500 years. Thus is wouldn’t be economically viable to protect New Orleans.
• A simulation named Hurricane Pam was actually conducted in July 2004, which predicted the damage and destruction that would ensue from a category three hurricane striking New Orleans. The simulation highlighted several key areas that needed to be addressed to minimise casualties if a hurricane were to hit New Orleans. This website is good to read up on the hurricane Pam simulation however bare in mind that since hurricane Katrina, the response to the simulation has come under a lot of criticism so the article may be biased; http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/hurricane-pam.htm
• America has arguably the best emergency response team in the world, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association). However in this disaster it wasn’t up to scratch, why was that? Probably because George Bush put his lawyer mate Michael Brown in charge when he had no disaster management experience, but who’s pointing fingers?
• Hurricane Cindy probably saved thousands of lives in New Orleans. Residents of city had become complacent about the risk from hurricanes meaning that when Cindy struck on 5^th July 2005 few people evacuated the resulting damage forced the largest blackout in New Orleans since 1965. This scared people meaning that when hurricane Katrina was forecast more people evacuated.

How did the Government Respond?

• On the 28^th August Mayor Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city, however many refused to leave due to a lack of money or the belief that their properties offered decent safety. This illustrates the lack of education about the impacts hurricanes.
• A last resort was set up for those people who didn’t leave the city; the Louisiana Superdome was supplied with ready to eat meals and bottled water but individuals were told to bring as much food and blankets as possible.
• The collapse of communication infrastructure made it difficult to organise relief efforts to relieve the many-trapped citizens who were surviving on rooftops throughout the city. In some cases reporters were asked to assist authorities in providing information about unreachable areas. By September 4^th a temporary communications hub had been erected
• Only two routes remained available open out of the city and one of these was only holding emergency traffic. Fortunately New Orleans airport was relatively unscathed and opened to humanitarian flights on the 30^th August and commercial cargo flights on the 10^th September. Passenger flights were resumed on 13^th September.
• The initial refuge of Louisiana Superdome was deemed unsafe after several roof sections were compromised and the waterproof skin on the dome was ‘peeled’ off. The governor of Louisiana evacuated the remaining people inside the stadium to the Houston Astrodome on The 30th August.
• The police force has had mixed reactions following the hurricane, they clearly played a key role in the search for survivors and also helped to control looting however many officers had ditched the city with their patrol cars before the hurricane. One resident was told to “Go to hell, it’s every man for himself” when he asked a police officer for help. It also emerged that the New Orleans police department covered up the murder of two residents by fabricating a story of being fired upon and planting a gun on the dead after the police had killed them.
• The 31^st August saw the announcement that the police were now focusing on trying to control looting and violence that was hampering relief efforts. Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco also announced that 6,500 National Guard were on their way and that “they have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to kill and I expect they will”.
• Bush has also been criticised by foreign by foreign leaders for not accepting aid or taking a long time to respond. Interestingly some nations who you wouldn’t expect offered aid, particularly Cuba. America hates Cuba, so it’s of little surprise that they rejected the aid. Our own John Prescott was brave enough to blame the disaster on the fact that America hadn’t been participating in Kyoto.
• Bush was also criticised as it was him who had appointed Michael Brown as leader of FEMA and it had been them who the majority of blame had fallen due to the slow and poor response.
• Bush was also accused of racism, but be careful how you use this point and how you word it.

So how does this link to SPEED?

• S – It was largely the poorer populations who were worst affected as they had no transport out of the city and were stranded.
• P – Bush went on to lose the congress to the Democrats (his opposition) in the 2006 mid-term elections. The governor of Louisiana also chose not to run for a return term.
• E – The shutdown of oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico was enough to increase oil prices.
• E – Many people suffered from mosquito related diseases such as West Nile fever and other waterborne diseases such as cholera. Interestingly it’s been proposed that the best way for New Orleans to recover in the long term is to repair wetland areas that were damaged by the hurricane as this will vastly improve fishing outputs.
• D – New Orleans is known for blues, this is something else for them to sing about. It’s also been suggested that Bush didn’t act as efficiently/quickly due to the high percentage of black population in New Orleans.

Sorry that this was so long but it’s a huge subject and I’ve cut down loads, probably to the extent that it’s missing some vital stuff but else it’d be massive. There are also a lot of other links to SPEED but I just gave a couple for each point as you should be able to figure them out. I’ll put some pictures up later but I’m now off to play a gig. Cheers for reading!  

Revision: magma, lava, volcano shape, volcano style! and how it comes together

So there are many different types of lava type due to the plate boundary. 
The thicker the area of crust that a pluton has to rise through the more enriched in silica the pluton becomes (this is all you need to know really) however, this is how it works-- so to the left is what is known as Bowen's reaction series. the basic principle is that the minerals found at the top crystalise out at higher temperatures- olivive at 1300 degrees; whereas quartz crystalises out at a much lower temperature of 550 degrees...therefore as the the pluton rises further and temperature gets relatvely cooler mafic minerals are the first to crystalise out and thus leaving a higher percentage of silica. (once cooled these are the ligher coloured rocks)

Therefore, the more silicic the magma the more explosive it is as it is sticky and viscous, this high viscocity doesnt allow easy flow therefore the pressure builds up creating some impressive eruptions(plinian,pelean,strombolian and volcanian), whereas basic magma comes directly from the aesthenosphere thus having very little distance to travel, this means very little differentiation can occur and the composition of magma is low in silica this makes for a very tame eruption (unless under an ice cap) the rocks produced are very dark in colour and the eruption less explosive (icelandic and hawaiin)

As the high ratio of silica makes the lava so very viscous the lava cannot move quickly or very far this means that very steep sided volcanoes are formed by silicic magma such as composite volcanoes, strato volcanoes and calderras (as the volcano blowing itself out happens in large explosive eruptions) whereas as shallow sided/flat volcano shapes such as shield volcanoes and fissures are caused by basaltic eruptions.


Other things to note:
-Basic volcanoes are very easy to manage and therefore areas with these attract alot of tourism.
-people live in areas with volcanoes as the soil is very fertile
-the prediction of a volcano is much easier than an earthquake
-you can try and make homes withstand the effecs of a volcano but very little with stand up to a lava flow or pyroclastics!!!

China: A history of economic development

China: A history of economic development

If you're not interested in China's development then skip to the last paragraph which is the most relevant to the course, otherwise I apologise for the excessively long post and lack of pictures. [James]

Throughout the ancient world China was regarded as an early ‘superpower’, they were vastly more technologically developed than most (if not all) other nations. This reign of power continued all the way until 19^th Century when Europe entered the Industrial revolution, leaving China struggling behind. A shadow of it’s former power and influence. The period that followed was plagued with civil war as the dynastical reign that had controlled China up until that point collapsed. The civil war ended in 1949 when the Communist party defeated the Chinese Nationalist Party (who went on to form the Republic of China).

From 1949 China became one of the strictest communist countries with harsh penalties for any capitalists often torture. Many managers of businesses committed suicide although it’s often been debated over how voluntary these deaths actually were. These campaigns were known as the three anti and five anti campaigns; they targeted capitalists and political opposition. During the years of isolation the government aimed to reduce whilst greatly investing in industrialisation to boost the economy. This period did nothing for the standard of living for the urban Chinese who had the same standard of living in 1957 up until the reforms and rural Chinese were even worse off. The standard of living was no different in 1970 than in 1930. The strict communist control did little to help China and in 1958 it suffered a terrible famine that went on to kill between 30 and 40 million. It was caused through a mixture of factors but was largely down to the fact that agricultural workers had been moved to steel manufacturing thus crops were rotting as they couldn’t be collected and the fact that Chairman Mao continued to export grain even though there was a shortage of it within China. He wanted to maintain that China had a strong image yet it was clear worldwide that people were starving within the country. After this failure Chairman Mao realised that he would take the majority of the blame so quickly jumped ship and Deng Xiaoping took leadership of China.

This marks the second phase of China’s development, 1978-1984. The first action Deng took was to increase agricultural production to prevent a repetition of the famine under Mao. This was successful and the living standards within China finally began to improve. He also made China ‘less communist’; state owned businesses were allowed to sell excess production and private businesses were once again permitted. Deng also introduced arguably the most important economic reform in China’s history and one that has had global impacts. He set up the Special Economic Zones, which allowed foreign investment and were free of bureaucracy that hampered economic growth. These areas went on to become the engines for China’s economic growth creating a growth pole for the coastal areas around them.

The period from 1984 onwards was a period of decentralisation of businesses allowing them more freedom to grow (however not as much freedom as within a capitalist country). The state sector however was still holding back the rapidly growing economy and slowing the economic development. This led to the accelerating privatisation after 1992; this led to the private sector generating a higher percentage of GDP than the state sector for the first time in the mid 90’s. The Chinese authorities recognised the increased contribution, in 1988 the private sector was said “to complement” the state sector and was then described as an “important component” in 1999. Although Deng passed away in 1997 his reforms continued under the leadership he had handpicked. This resulted in a decrease of 48% of state owned businesses between 2001 and 2004. During the same period the leadership made moves to remove the number of trade barriers, regulations and tariffs to help promote a freer movement of trade. By 2005 few companies remained state owned however the ones that did were the largest such as petroleum and banking industries.

2005 marked a turning point in Chinese economics with observers noting that the country was once again becoming more egalitarian (communist) due to conservative reformers entering the government. The state sector has been pumped full of money to encourage “national champion” businesses which can compete with global giants. Only time will tell whether this is a wise move.

What is clear that the reforms allowed and encouraged by Deng have greatly boosted China’s economy with economic growth averaging 9.5% per year from 1978 until 2005. This growth exceeded that of the Four Asian Tigers and has had dramatic effects internally and internationally. Average wages rose sixfold between 1978 and 2005 and absolute poverty declined from 41% in 1978 to 5% in 2005.  The 2009 Gini coefficient report has placed China in the same category as the USA and much of South America, much higher than what it would have been ranked pre-reforms. The Chinese economy is even said to be keeping the economy of Asia afloat, the trade deficit it has with the rest of Asia is helping countries to grow and develop. It could then be said that China is the driving force behind the west’s decreasing economic power. Of course China’s growth hasn’t been without controversy, it’s regularly in the news for trying to hide something from the western world whether it’s environmental concerns, such as the three gorges dam or human rights. The day I wrote this China are in the news again being accused of trying to hack top American and South Korean accounts, although I personally feel that the North Koreans should also be investigated. The power that China now has over the world is worrying some of the western world and rightly so, but its no more power than America once held and significantly less than the British are used to. The only reason the western worlds are scared is because China isn’t an ally and the Americans are petrified of communists. Throughout history there’s often been a nation or a group of nations who have held the majority of power; the Chinese, the Romans, the Persians, the French, the British and most recently America/Europe. It appears that China and Asia are about to take that power from the western world and surely it’s only fair that power is distributed evenly over time?

I’m just looking forward to the day Africa holds the majority of the power. 

a few development definitions:

first world:- NORMALLY DEMOCRATIC AND CAPITALIST COUNTRIES...
I.E. WESTERN EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA, JAPAN,NEW ZEALAND.

third world:- ALL OTHER COUNTRIES INCLUDING AFRICA,ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA...
-COUNTRIES THAT REMAINED NON ALIGNED
-NOT MOVING WITH CAPITALISM + NATO
I.E. COMMUNISM + SOVIET UNION


post cold war:-SOVIET UNION FELL IN 1991 , EASTERN BLOCK CEASED TO EXIST
-have now moved away from purely economic and political indicators


the Brandt line- north/south divide
   (now considered derogatory-- Indonesia and south America both above the line)

GDP-total value of products and services produced within the territorial boundary of a country
    -used to seee how the strength of a countries local economy

GNP-total value of goods and services produced by all nationals of acountry (whether living in or out the country)
   -used to see how the nationals of the country are doing economically

HDI-a measurement of gnp/capita, adult literacy, school enrolement, le at birth
   - number produced is between 0 and 1
         - 1-0.8 = high
         -0.8-0.6= medium
         - below 0.6 = low

the environment can hold hdi backwhereas economy can boost it

HPI-shows ecological efficiency
   -high levels of resource consumption do not rely produce high levels of well being



CORE PERIPHERY
- the fact that there can be variation in a country

e.g. USA-washington HDI= high.
                          - vancouver and seattle just over the border= tourists
WHEREAS
             -montana HDI=low
                           -near mountains
             -new orleans HDI=low
                            extreme weather; hurricanes etc


MDC-stable economy high GDP and HDI
NIC's- S.Korea- more than 40years
RIC's- last 40years i.e India
LDC- (see previous post)
CPE's- communist countries N.Korea, China, Kerela, Cuba, Vietnam, Burma
ORC's-oil rich countries -some developed some not

DEVELOPMENT IS A CONTINUAL PROCESS!!!!!

Revision - Tectonics

Apparently our exams are coming up? I don't really know, I think Millie said something about doing 7 hours of revision a week. That sounds a bit extensive to me, I'll give it a few more weeks until I start...






So I am going to start delving back into my favourite topic and prove my nerdiness to the world as I get excited by the Laki eruption of 1783 (and the synoptic links it offers), the Wilson cycle, the possibility of predicting earthquakes etc. I'm like a child before christmas. 


The first topic shall be... (drum roll)


THE EVIDENCE FOR CONTINENTAL DRIFT AND IT'S RELATIVE USEFULNESS 


So alrighty then, lets get this show on the road. Firstly what is continental drift? Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates in relation to each other, this can be moving towards each other, away from each other or laterally against each. 

Geologists (and aristocrats with nothing else to do) often identified the simplest evidence for continental drift. This is the fact that certain coastlines match with each other, for example in 1620 Sir Francis Bacon recognised that the coastlines of East South America and West Africa were closely related (though he failed to note that they can also form the tectonic rex...). This represents the first piece of evidence that can be used to prove continental drift, matching coastlines to each other. This however is very subjective which makes it unreliable and can match coastlines that are completely unrelated for example the UK looks as if it could slot quite snugly into the Gulf of Carpentaria (other people may disagree, illustrating the subjectiveness). What this evidence does allow is for further investigation, it's a cheap method of identifying areas which may be worth looking into. 


Biology and Climate have also been used to identify and help prove continental drift. By finding common fossils in vastly distant locations such as the Mesosaurus (which has been found in both Brazil and South Africa) we are able to distinguish that these locations were once connected. We can interpret these locations as being connected due to the traits of evolution, the chances of the same species evolving simultaneously in separate locations is almost impossible. A prime example of why we interpret evolution this way is by examining Madagascar. Madagascar split from Africa 160 million years ago meaning it's flora and fauna evolved independently of the rest of the world's. This has resulted in species similar to those found elsewhere but actually not related, for example the Tenrec which is often mistaken as a common hedgehog. This is an example of species filling the same niches in different areas but not evolving commonly, crucial to establishing the continental drift theory. 

The diagram illustrates sea floor spreading and how it can be
measured using palaeomagnetism

The discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 1948 helped provide evidence for continental drift. Along the ridge there is a line of volcanoes which is where new oceanic crust is created, thus if oceanic crust is being created then the Earth is getting bigger but it's not. Therefore it must be being destroyed in a separate location. This, when coupled with the discovery of sea floor spreading in the 1960s provides (arguably) the strongest evidence for continental drift. Investigations into sea floor spreading were made possible with the development of Radio Carbon 14 dating (RC14) which has proven that as you move away from the mid-ocean ridges the age of the rocks increases. The final piece of 'modern' evidence for continental drift is Palaeomagnetism. This was discovered in the 1940s due to use of military SONAR equipment and then then theorised into what we understand today by Fred Vine and Drummond Matthews. Palaeomagnetism explores the concept that when iron bearing magma cool below the Curie point the iron within the rocks acts a "fossil compass" pointing towards the prevailing global magnetic field (the Earth's magnetic field switches between North and South and vice versa, every 400ka) . If the sea floor is spreading then the oceanic crust should show symmetrical magnetic stripes as you move away from the mid-ocean ridge. 


I reckon that's enough to be getting on with at the moment, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask away, we're here to help. I'm off to procrastinate instead of doing revision.

Millenium development goals

So I have decided that I am going to start posting summaries and clippets of A2 geography starting at the beginning of the year,

Our first topic of the year was development so this is where I will start!

LDC’s

These are defined by a few key factors,

-income below $750 per capita per year

-very weak resources

    - i.e healthcare, education, nutrition/calorie intake

-economic vulnerability

    i.e –instable exports and instable agricultural production

these are generally associated with a corruption, dictatorships and conflict.

There are currently 49 countries classified as LDC’s this is divided with 33 in Africa, 15 in Asia and 1 in Latin America (Haiti).

-          16 of these are landlocked and 12 small islands

So the question is what is being done to help these countries?  the answer is millenium development goals.   These are a set of 8 goals set up by 192 united nation members who were  hoping tgo achieve them all by 2015 however each one has their own set of deadlines.

   The first goal:

   -To halve the proportion of people whose income = below $1/day

         -this was set to start in 1990 and be achieved by 2015

  -To achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all

        -reasons? when people lose their jobs it leads to vulnerable employment where human rights are comprimised

       - Halve the proportion who suffer from hunger

                -1990-2015

Achieved by:  subsidy programmes in Malawi and Ghana for fertiliser and feeds

                        Malawi need 2.2 million tonnes for self sufficiency

UNDP- supporting national, rural employment gurantee scheme-India

                                      - Providing a minimum of 10days work a year

Goal 2:  ensuring children everywhere are able to complete primary education by 2015

                    -sub saharan africa and South asia

Being achieved by:

-fees abolished in 8 countries-- Tanzania, enrolement ratio doubled to 99.6% in 2008

-world programme-providing school meals

      -encourages parents to send the children to school

EU- basic education in Africa programme- to adopt legal frameworks guranteeing 8-10 year olds uninterrupted education

for goal 2 to be achieved goal one needs to be achieved first.

Goal number 3!

-elimintaing gender disparity in primary and secondary education
       -2015

-Giving women more time to achieve-
      -Diesel run generators burkino faso - frees up womens time.




Goal 4:

-Reduce under 5 mortality rate by 2/3rds. 1990-2015

Achieved by

   -Immunization programmes- Egypt, Vietnam and Bangladesh

  

   -Mosquito nets provided to reduce malaria

              - Republic of Congo

 Goal number...5!

Reduction of maternal mortality by 3/4

      -1990-2015

Achieved by:

- investing in mobile maternal health units

                -e.g. Pakistan

-achieve universal access to productive health care

Goal 6:

To halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015

Achieved by?

   - access to treatment for thos ethat need it

   - free access to antiretrovial treatment

                   -e.g Botswana-- increase Life Expectancy by 4years

                                          -reduce new cases of HIV

Number 7:

-To halve the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

Achieved by:

    -UNICEF- water quality survelance

                    -promote low cost sanitation

                    - promote and improve sanitation in schools

Goal 8:

-Develop an open,rule based, predictable, non-discrimintary trading and financial system

                - Deal comprehensively with debt issues

 

Achieve by?

-UN conference, south-south cooperation

           -co operation thgrough aid, trade technical assistance and investment

                              -- encourages countries of the south to advance valuable partnerships

So this is the first of the many posts to come on development, i hope reading this will start to jog your emory back to last July!!!



Temperate Climates

Cool Temperate Western Maritime Climates don't you just love 'em? Well if you don't then, unless you're planning on emigration, you need to get used to them.

So where are they found?

- Well between 40 and 60 degrees North/South constitutes a temperate climate
- And being on the Western edge of a continent constitutes a maritime climate
- What determines how far inland the climate extends is based upon the relief of the land

There are three types of rainfall: - Orographic Rainfall
                                                         - Convectional Rainfall
                                                         - Frontal Rainfall

So what other countries are remarkably lucky to share the same climate as the wondrous UK?

- South West New Zealand
- Chile, the Andes block the climate from extending any further within the country
- Canada, Vancouver - the Rockies block the climate from extending any further
- Western Europe, quite a few countries share our climate because the climate doesn't get blocked until the Alps

What does a Cool Temperate Western Maritime Climate mean?

- Weather is changeable with no marked seasonal differences
- Plenty of cloud and precipitation all year round
- Extremes of temperature are rare
- Low annual temperature range
- Fairly strong winds
- Warm summers
- Mild winters

- Maritime climates are unique as they are unusual to what we'd expect on similar lines of latitude. For example the UK are on a similar latitude to Moscow yet we experience a vastly different climate.
       - The reason for this is due to the high specific heat capacity of water. Water takes longer to heat up and cool down than land, this means that summers are cooler than expected and winters are milder.


Any questions?

The Atmosphere

I am unbelievably bored, have nothing else to do and seeing as the blog hasn't been updated in a while I thought I'd explain the atmosphere in greater detail. They're in stratigraphical (is that a word?) order starting from sea level.

The Troposphere

Oh what a glorious place it is... This is the first layer of our atmosphere and it is heated via infrared radiation being radiated from the Earth, this means that as altitude increases temperature falls. Atmospheric pressure also decreases with altitude, there's a simple reason for this. The higher you go the less there is above you so the pressure decreases. Wind speeds increase with altitude in the troposphere as at higher altitudes there is less to act as a wind break.

Stratosphere

Once you get through the troposphere everything starts getting a bit warmer until temperatures reach a toasty -3 degrees Celsius. The reason the temperatures increase with altitude is because the stratosphere is heated by the absorption of  UV radiation by Ozone (so from above, not below).
When ozone absorbs UV it gets split up into Diatomic Oxygen and Atomic Oxygen, in the normal process this would then bond again to form Ozone. The ozone layer should remain in dynamic equilibrium (constantly changing, but overall staying the same), however when CFCs are emitted into the atmosphere they also get broken down. The Chlorine atom then bonds with an Atomic oxygen atom to form ClO preventing the atomic oxygen bonding with diatomic oxygen to replenish the ozone layer. So in reality CFCs don't destroy the ozone layer but rather prevent it from replenishing itself.

Mesosphere
Not much really goes on here to be fair, temperature decreases with altitude for reasons I can't accurately find out but I do know that the mesopause house the coldest temperature on Earth. The only other thing interesting to know is that the mesosphere is where most meteors burn up upon entering the atmosphere.

Thermosphere
I understand even less of this stratigraphical layer, for a confusing reason the temperature increases with altitude although not for the same reason as in the stratosphere. It's something to do with there being so few particles, I don't know google it.

Exosphere
There's like nothing here, at all. The number of particles (mainly hydrogen and helium) are so few that they can travel hundreds of kilometres without colliding with each other, this also means that the atmosphere stops behaving like a liquid. "Why are you even telling us this then?" You may be wondering... Well it sort of answers a question raised in class the other day about whether atoms in Space join Earth's atmosphere. It is actually the opposite, Earth experiences a net loss of hydrogen and helium at about 3 kg and 50 g respectively a second. That's a relatively tiny amount though so don't start worrying that we're running out of atmosphere.

The human race will have likely imploded before we ever lose our atmosphere.

volcanoes

We are now back to volcanoes (: and although todays lessons was not thrilling it was definately a vast improvement upon that of Belfast. We have also been set an essay, nothing like ensuring we don't relax-- it hadnt even been 24 hours after the exam! oh well such as life.

Today was a lesson running through what we were doing before christmas:

There are 2 key types of magma Basaltic and Rhyolitic this is judged upon how much silica (SiO2) is found within the magma, see the table below.

Summary Table
Magma Type	Solidified Rock	Chemical Composition	Temperature	Viscosity	Gas Content
Basaltic	Basalt	45-55 SiO2 %, high in Fe, Mg, Ca, low in K, Na	1000 - 1200 oC	Low	Low

Rhyolitic

Rhyolite

65-75 SiO2 %, low in Fe, Mg, Ca, high in K, Na.

650 - 800 oC

High

High

 

• Hawaiian - These are eruptions of low viscosity basaltic magma. Hawaiian Eruptions are considered non-explosive eruptions.  Very little pyroclastic material is produced.

Strombolian - These eruptions are characterized by distinct blasts of basaltic to andesitic magma from the vent. Strombolian eruptions are considered mildly explosive. Vulcanian - These eruptions are characterized by sustained explosions of solidified or highly viscous andesite or rhyolite magma from a the vent.  Eruption columns can reach several km above the vent, and often collapse to produce pyroclastic flows.  Widespread tephra falls are common.  Vulcanian eruptions are considered very explosive. Pelean - These eruptions result from the collapse of an andesitic or rhyolitic  lava dome. Pelean eruptions are considered violently explosive. Plinian - These eruptions result from a sustained ejection of andesitic to rhyolitic magma into eruption columns that may extend up to 45 km above the vent.  Eruption columns produce wide-spread fall deposits with thickness decreasing away from the vent, and may exhibit eruption column collapse to produce pyroclastic flows.  Plinian ash clouds can circle the Earth in a matter of days. Plinian eruptions are considered violently explosive.

i feel there is a good chance i may add to it soon!