Iain Stewart on Earthquakes

A repost of this video I will be using tomorrow...

Hodder Revision Conference

Down to Apollo Victoria Theatre with a group of Year 12 and 13 students this week for the annual Tectonic Hazards Student Day. 

As usual, this involved sessions by examiners and academics. There were apparent;y around 1500 students and teachers in attendance.

I made notes on each of the presentations, as did the students we hope. We will also be getting a link for electronic copies of the PPTs themselves.

A few points from me:
Sue Warn
- investigate the zoning of R/Y/G for buildings in Christchurch
- develop an understanding of ridge-push and slab-pull rather than convection currents, and remember to mention the tectonic setting of any boundaries that are referred to
- good to see GeoCapabilities colleague Duncan Hawley getting a mention

Dr. Martin Degg
- changes in size are more important at the top of the MMS rather than lower down
- 75% of global seismicity energy release happens in the Ring of Fire
- talked through the Alpine-Himalayan Zone
- introduction to CATDAT Database
- Dhajji Dewari building system
- gender inequality in risk: 80% of casualties in Indian Ocean tsunami were female)
- the development of the SENDAI Framework


- the addition of the word sustainable to their priority language
- "build back better" - is this actually happening? fast enough?

Professor Fiona Tweed
- Iceland focus - remember that we have images and stories from those who went with us in 2015
- she mentioned that plates travel at the rate your fingernails grow, which is often mentioned - I always wonder how true that is and need to set up an experiment...
- remember to check out http://www.vedur.is
-  Read Kate Smith's article on Katla in 'The Conversation'

Dr. Debbie Milton
- Idea of resilient cities

- Comparison of the people who had gone 'home' in Haiti or Fukushima... my thoughts on these statistics were - what is it that constitutes going home? Won't it take longer to rebuild the homes of people in Japan rather than those in Haiti? How similar are their homes?

Professor Iain Stewart
- reminded us how lucky we have been that we haven't had a direct hit on a major city for over a century - when will our luck run out?
- described the "fatal attraction" of cities like Bam, where the fault line which provided the threat also released water, which helped make the area fertile (important for a city surrounded by desert)
- the unzipping of the fault, and the threat facing the Sea of Marmara - the threat of tsunamis from a bathymetric scarp
- important to consider the fatalism of people in Japan, compared to other locations, in this New Scientist article
-  in terms of building quality, one issue is that we won't know whether they are going to keep people alive until the earthquake happens - the density of people living in new high rise blocks has now increased the population living in risky areas

David Redfern
- the 4 M's - a little rushed and a lot of case studies visited in a short time - may need further following up...
- he showed a Charlie Hebdo cartoon which some saw of as being in bad taste, given the previous support for the magazine following the terrorist attack on their offices

Some areas to explore further...
 

Revision materials for 'A' level Geographers

I shared a BBC Taster 'experimental website' where you could choose an adventure for Simon Reeve a few months ago, and the latest website in the series of trials features Professor Iain Stewart talking about the Carbon Cycle - a special revision resource for 'A' level Geographers especially.
Check it out !

Did I tell you about the time Iain presented me with a medal ? I don't like to talk about it though....