Earthquake!

The screenshot below shows the earthquakes that have struck central Italy over the past day or so, courtesy of a new Google Maps mashup pointed out by Alan Parkinson (aka GeoBlogs):


Also interesting (and perhaps somewhat worrying) are news reports such as this one from the Times, suggesting that the earthquake was predicted, but warnings were ignored...

Latest reports suggest that the death toll is now nearing 150. There've been lots of updates to the coverage on the BBC website, and a Google News search will bring up lots of articles.

Earthquake in Italy and Chilean volcano

I was reminded when I switched the news on this morning of my A Level Geography teacher, who used to say that every time he taught plate tectonics, he could almost guarantee there'd be an earthquake or a volcanic eruption somewhere in the world. That's certainly seemed to be the case every time I've taught it, and just the other day I told Yr13 to watch the news over the holidays.

Sadly, the first news item I saw this morning was that an earthquake in Italy had killed at least 16 people. According to the BBC website, the death toll is now 27. The magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the medieval city of L'Aquila in the early hours of this morning, causing many of the city's 70,000 residents to run out into the streets in panic. The age of the buildings meant that many of them were unable to withstand the quake, and the narrow mountainous roads are making rescue attempts more difficult.

The Google Earth screenshot below shows the area, with the USGS earthquakes layer enabled.

More from the BBC here.

Also on the same news bulletin was that the Llaima volcano in Chile has been "spewing lava, ash and gas" overnight, causing many people from the surrounding area to be evacuated. As well as the danger from the eruption itself, melting snow is increasing the risk of mudslides, and volcanic ash has caused river levels in the area to increase. More here.

Etna Eruption...

Hot on the heels of the weekend's earthquake in Kent (which you will no doubt know all about by now!) Mt Etna is erupting as I type... Click on the picture to read the story from the Telegraph website... There is also some video footage on the BBC website.

Yesterday's volcanic eruption...

Interestingly, it was my Year 8s today who could tell me all about the eruption of Stromboli - both Yr9 groups (who are studying Natural Hazards at the moment) claimed not to have heard of Stromboli!

Check out the BBC coverage here, or have a look at the webcams on this site (actually, I don't know how good they are - it's dark in Italy at the moment!!)

Putting Mrs K out of her misery!

Slightly more positive I guess, but not much...

The story "The dark side of the Christmas orange harvest" described the conditions that about 20,000 African migrants, harvesting clementines for Christmas in Southern Italy have found themselves in.

The majority are working illegally, for very low wages, and living in very poor conditions - described in the article as "not even meeting the minimum standards set by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for refugees in camps in Africa".

So severe is the situation in Southern Italy that Medecins Sans Frontieres - an international charity which works mainly in Africa and Asia - has sent a team in.

The picture below shows Samia, from Ghana, in the abandoned factory that is his home - along with about 80 other migrants. Click on the picture to link to the full story.

There is also a Special Report, focusing on the sad stories of individual workers, and a series of images.


But...

Why are these men moving to Italy? Why do they put up with such poor conditions? Does Italy need these migrant workers? If so, should they be treating them better than this? (And even if not, should they be treated like this?!).