Some brilliant Eyjafjallajokull images... And how DO you say it?

Some more stunning images from The Big Picture of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption and its impacts here.

And for those of you who've not yet seen it (and those of you who've seen it several times in lessons and still haven't mastered the pronounciation):

Planes or volcano...?

No, I'm not bored yet! Click on the picture to link to the site...

Ash Friday...

The Newseum website is an excellent website where you can access, amongst other things, front pages from newspapers across the world. Here's their top ten from today... dubbed Ash Friday...Click on the picture above to link to the site.

Eyjafjallajokull on Flickr...

Lots of amazing images of the eruption and its impacts on Flickr.

I particularly like those of steini3 and Helga*. Let me know if you find any other particularly good ones.

Ash...

I'm pleased to see from some emails that you are keeping an eye on what's going on with Eyjafjallajokull at the moment. If you have missed the news (I'm not sure how you'd have managed to do that really...) a quick Google News search for "iceland volcano" will bring you up to speed!

In the midst of all the news about UK airports being closed though, there's not been much coverage of what's actually going on in Iceland - flash flooding caused by the melting of the glacier above the volcano has caused hundreds of residents to be evacuated... Find out more and practise your Icelandic with some of these news reports: http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/4497963/2010/04/15/6/ (there are links to several different news clips below the video) and check out Iceland Review, where there are frequent updates (and links to some impressive videos and photos) in English.

There's also an excellent set of links here to more images, blogs, webcams, etc. and the links I've collected so far (going back to the start of the eruption in March) are here.

My Coastal Life - Photo Competition

Fantastic photo competition from Atlantic Rising... Watch the video to find out more, and let me know if you're interested in entering:

My Coastal Life from Atlantic Rising on Vimeo.

Mission: Explore

I've posted about Mission: Explore before... But now the book is here, and it's excellent!


Check out the Mission: Explore website, follow @geocollective on Twitter, order a copy of the book, and get exploring!!

Another Iceland volcano webcam...

This is the current image from a different webcam of the ongoing Icelandic volcanic eruption... Click on the picture to link to the webcam:

More Eyjafjallajokull activity...

This screenshot was taken a few minutes ago from the webcam mentioned in the previous post. There's been plenty going on all day, but now that it's starting to get dark, things are starting to look even more impressive...

Ejyafjalljokull eruption

Having been away all week with Year 12, I have missed out on the developments in Iceland, so catching up now.

There are further updates from Ian Hardie on this thread - well worth a read, and a several excellent webcams have been set up... Here's an image from one of them from a few minutes ago:Have a look this evening as it starts to get dark, and send me some screenshots!

http://mila.is/um-milu/vefmyndavelar/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/
http://www.mila.is/um-milu/vefmyndavelar/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

Some nice aerial images here and a set of photos taken by a local farmer here on Flickr.

Icelandic volcanic eruption...

You might well have seen on the news that an Icelandic volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier has erupted today, after 200 years of dormancy. About 500 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The BBC report with some video footage is here and this is a link to a discussion on a Geography forum, which includes emails from Ian Hardie, who leads Rayburn Tours' Iceland Geography tours, and who has a home in the area.

Scott's on StreetView!

You may or may not be aware that Google StreetView is now pretty much nationwide. After a quick look at my house the other day (which was photographed on a Monday morning, because the bins are out...), I investigated Swanwick, and spotted Scott:



Explore where you live and see if you're a StreetView Star too! There might be a prize or two if you can find yourself on StreetView and send me a screenshot...

In the meantime, you might also find this article from The Telegraph interesting.

Weather World Record Attempt

Part of the BBC School News Report event involves an attempt to break the world record for the largest interactive weather report... Here's Aaron's report:

Schools all across the U.K today are taking part in a world record attempt to create the largest interactive weather report. Schools from the Shetland Isles to schools on Jersey and even schools on St Helena are taking a temperature reading at approximately 9:15am and emailing the temperature to the BBC Weather Centre to gather the readings and to see whether we can break the record and get into the Guinness World Record Book. Every school's temperature reading will have to be seen by an independent witness for their reading to be counted and go towards the record attempt.

At our school we took the temperature and it was 3◦C. our reading was witnessed by Mr Hickton who is a member of the Amber Valley Rotary Club.

Aaron checking the temperature

Geo School News Report

A bunch of budding Year 8 and 9 geo-journalists will be taking part in the BBC's School News Report today...
Find out more on the BBC website, and watch this space for their stories.

Good luck Geo-News Report Team!!

A Day in New York...

With my liking for timelapse photography, and my current love of all things New York, I was very impressed with this:

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Chile earthquake

By now you will no doubt have heard about the 8.8 earthquake that hit central Chile yesterday, triggering tsunami warnings in 53 countries around the Pacific. There are lots of news reports, and there are location maps and more details from the BGS, USGS and Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

This map from the BBC shows the tsunami spreading across the Pacific Ocean:


The Boston Globe Big Picture, as ever, has some amazing images.

How Earth Made Us

New Iain Stewart series starts this evening on BBC2, 9.00pm.

Professor Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how geology, geography and climate have influenced mankind.

Earthquake in Haiti

Awful situation in Haiti at the moment as a result of a M7 earthquake - the worst in the area for 200 years - that struck the capital, Port-au-Prince, last night.

Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries, with many people living in poorly constructed slum dwellings. The death toll is already thought to be in the thousands, and the Red Cross estimate that up to three million people have been affected. The lack of infrastructure is a major issue, and the absence of ambulances, fire engines and emergency rescue teams is noticeable in the images that are appearing on the various news websites.

Emergency response teams from various countries including the UK, together with aid agencies such as Oxfam and ActionAid are preparing to fly out to Haiti, and the UN have released £6 million from their emergency relief fund to help the victims of the earthquake.

BBC
CNN
Sky News

Montserrat "explosion"

Just noticed that the Montserrat Volcanic Observatory have added some new photos to their Flickr page, so had a look at their website to find that the alert level has been upped to 4 (5 being the highest) and that there was an explosion which caused a large pyroclastic flow on Friday.

Some excellent images and a range of videos (including some thermal ones) of pyroclastic flows on the MVO website...

What happened to global warming?

Lots of people have been asking in the past few days why it is so cold when people keep banging on about global warming... A nice little video clip here from the BBC, which emphasises the difference between weather and climate.