Kawah Ijen

I've been teaching a lesson that I have been using for a few year now, using a clip from the BBC's Human Planet series - I have the DVD box with all the films from this series on how humans and nature coincide and the challenges that humans overcome.

Carlo Falk also made a film that tells a similar story.

Short Documentary Film - The Sulphur Miners of Kawah Ijen

In 2019 I was sent to Indonesia by the Swedish paper Arbetet as a photographer and filmmaker together with journalist Ivar Andersen. “The sulphur miners of Kawah Ijen” is a short documentary film about the toxic and dangerous work of the Indonesian miners in a volcano. In the short film we follow Beni and other sulphur miners at Kawah Ijen who shares their story with us about the hardships and the costs of working as a miner.

Kawah means "crater".

Ijen lies in a Geopark on the island of Java.

There are lots of tourists who now visit the location and Tripadvisor has details of lots of tours.

Iceland - made by volcanoes...

Iceland has been made by volcanoes. 

It developed along the point where a 'hot spot' or mantle plume coincided with a plate boundary.

Successive eruptions have laid layers of lava as flood basalts, spiked through with small effusive moments and the occasional larger eruption: Katla, Hekla, Laki etc.

Image: Natthagi Lavas - some people walking on lava just a few years old.

Do the benefits of this activity outweigh the potential risks and problems?

I asked my students to consider this question.

Do the Benefits of Volcanic Activity in Iceland outweigh the benefits? by Alan Parkinson

Iceland - a new volcanic era

"We just have to go with the flow.”

After centuries of peace, the Reykjanes peninsula has woken up with numerous earthquakes, ground inflation and several fissure eruptions - some lasting only a short time. Various management methods have been tried, but now the town of Grindavik has been evacuated. 

"How, then, is the country going to defend itself? How is it going to try and coexist with the temperamental beast that stirs below?"

For Dr. Robin Andrews, this is a new volcanic era and may require new adjustments. This is an excellent piece for Scientific American.

NEW: Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era, featuring years, decades or even centuries of eruptions. How is the country supposed to react?

For @sciam, I looked into the options—from fighting against lava to moving entire towns.https://t.co/fuVQ6Y0gyD

— Dr Robin George Andrews 🌋☄️ (@SquigglyVolcano) February 13, 2024

As the piece says, airborne threats are also airborne:

Noxious volcanic gases may also be a problem—in particular, sulphur dioxide, which effuses from shallow magma. It can be an irritant at best and lethal at worst, especially if it pools in enclosed environments, such as basements, and displaces the oxygen there. Erupted metal pollutants can also leech into the environment, and fine particles in plumes can “penetrate deep into our airways,” says Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a volcanologist at the University of Leeds in England.

Sundhnúkagígar Eruption

Of particular interest to those students heading to Iceland in March. 

A cross posting from the Fieldnotes from Iceland blog, which stores some reading and references linked to my work with Rayburn Tours.

This post is likely to be updated over the next few days and weeks - updates will appear at the bottom of the page.

The waiting is over for the residents of Grindavik and the Reykjanes Peninsula in particular.

The eruption began at 10.17 yesterday evening.

Live stream via RUV.

Paul Berry has produced a useful summary.

The eruption appears to be occurring exactly along the old crater line of Sundhnúkagígar (which is an old fissure) indicating that the magma likely exploited this weakness in the crust to find a way to the surface as it neared the surface (as indicated by the frequent earthquakes in the Grindavik area for the last few months).

There will be lots of people concerned about their flights and others who will be desperate to head out there, with flight prices likely to have been hiked with the news. The official line is that there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open.

The Guardian's page of updates.

Brendan Conway was quick off the mark with a web map using Vedurstofan map data. Thanks also to Ben Hennig of course for some quick responses despite the fact that he is thousands of miles away.

🆕 Updated map 03.00
🌋#Grindavík volcano eruption🌋 Reykjanes, Iceland Dec 2023
Map georeferenced using #MediaLayers in @ArcGISOnline#IcelandVolcano
🙏 @Vedurstofan_IMO for map layer via @geoviews
Click Layers > 3 dots > Show properties > Transparencyhttps://t.co/aXo0icv88I pic.twitter.com/qIsEApoFhZ

— BC (@mildthing99) December 19, 2023

A webcam picked up the start of the eruption: 

Byrjunin á eldgosinu á vefmyndavél RÚV yfir Grindavík

0:13 pic.twitter.com/Jx3icbxuxx

— Birkir (@birkirh) December 18, 2023

Some information on the resilience of the population: 

Excellent information about the steps Iceland is able to take manage the impact of tectonic hazards, for those who use it as a #geography case study. https://t.co/C84lLdjUK1

— Denise Freeman 🌎🙋🏻‍♀️ (@geography_DAF) December 19, 2023

Mr. P's been to Iceland

The Geography Deapartment have been on their travels this half term...

Mrs. M and Miss. S headed South

Mr. P headed North... to Iceland (not the freezer store) - here are a few geographical highlights.

Down into the Volcano

A companion piece to the Human Planet story on Extreme Jobs - people undertaking the tourist trek. Not checked 100% for fruity language just yet. 

Volcanic Hazards

Used these films this week.

Volcanic Hazards

We will use films from the Volfilm selection: https://vimeo.com/volfilm

For each hazard:

a)     What is it?

b)    What are the effects?

c)     How can the effects be reduced?

Explosive eruptions: https://vimeo.com/248150325

Lava: https://vimeo.com/248150337

Ashfall: https://vimeo.com/258987023

Pyroclastic Flows: https://vimeo.com/208040046

Lahars: https://vimeo.com/258992598

Gas: https://vimeo.com/248150333

Type of hazard & definition	Effect of hazard	Ways of reducing hazard

 Sheet to enter details while watching films.

Smartphones and volcanic eruptions

Volcanic hazards

Mayon continues to erupt... does this man let that stop him tending his land?

This man in Philippines is not letting the erupting Mayon volcano stop him from taking care of his farm. pic.twitter.com/5ImunLFGU6

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 4, 2018

Pyroclastic Flows - Volcanic Impacts

Well worth watching by Year 10, with respect to the Hazard Risk equation...

VOLFILM Pyroclastic Flow Impacts (English) from VolFilm on Vimeo.
and here is what they are....

VOLFILM Pyroclastic Flow Hazard (English) from VolFilm on Vimeo

Click the VOLFilm link to see 2 more films on lahars.

Expedition Volcano - one to watch...

Check out BBC2 at 9 o' clock tonight (after Blue Planet II has finished) for the first episode in a series based around the Nyiragongo volcano 

Details from BBC iPlayer website

In the heart of Africa, deep in the Congo, is one of the most spectacular volcanoes on Earth - Nyiragongo. This spectacular volcano contains a massive boiling cauldron of molten rock - the world's largest continually active lava lake. But it is also one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet. It has erupted twice in the last 50 years, most recently in 2002, wreaking havoc and destruction on the people who live in the nearby city of Goma. This region is also dangerous for another reason - it has been racked by war and humanitarian crises for most of the last 30 years, so Nyiragongo is one of the least studied active volcanoes on Earth.

But now, an international and local team of scientists are mounting a major expedition to study the volcano. They are attempting to discover the warning signs that it is building towards a new eruption, so they can alert the people of Goma before it erupts again. The team will take around four tonnes of climbing equipment, scientific instruments and supplies up to the crater rim. Then a small team will descend into the crater itself - 350m down a potentially deadly rockface - to spend a week camping right next to the lava lake. The expedition is led by Belgian scientist Dr Benoit Smets, who is an expert on Nyiragongo. He is joined by British geologist Prof Chris Jackson. Together, they work with the rest of the team using gas-sampling equipment, thermal cameras and sound waves to try and predict when the volcano will next erupt.

But there is another side to this volcano. As well as the threat of eruption, it impacts life in Goma and the surrounding area in many surprising ways. Humanitarian doctor Xand van Tulleken investigates how Nyiragongo has transformed people's lives by looking at the hidden dangers - from deadly disease to suffocating gases. In charge of expedition logistics is former Royal Marine Aldo Kane. It is his job to get everyone in and out of the crater safely. But during the expedition, he will also risk his life to get the team as near to the lava lake as possible.

BBC crew caught up in Etna eruption

Into the Inferno

On Netflix (and elsewhere...) the full version...

Volcanoes Top Trumps

You'll perhaps have seen the Volcano Top Trumps that we have a set of in the Geography department. You can now play against the computer, as the game has been turned into an online interactive game.

Useful for all KS3 groups.

You will need to register to play - e-mail and password required, plus an e-mail verification link will be sent. Consult your teachers / parents as appropriate before doing this.

Bardarbunga Eruption

Some Year 7s were asking about this earlier today.
Here's some footage taken with drones of the ongoing eruption in the Holuhraun lava field....

Adventure Landscapes....

Can you find a more spectacular video ?

Mt. Sinabung eruption - Geography is the News...

"...the only sign of life [was] an ownerless mobile phone ringing inside an abandoned bag".

Year 9's Risky World topic explores the problems of Tectonic Hazards.
These affect locations around the world, which lie along the boundaries between large sections of the earth's crust.
There are lots of potential case studies of eruptions for volcanoes and earthquakes.
We will be exploring HAITI in particular, using materials created by Miss Kyndt.
Just yesterday, there was another reminder that Geography isn't just in the News, Geography IS the News.
Mount Sinabung: a volcano on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia explosively erupted, killing a reported 11 people...
I heard about it first, as I often do these days, via Twitter.
It was picked up by the major news channels such as CNN

Sadly, the reports today are saying that the death toll might be higher and there was also damage to crops and other structures. A reminder that this relates the definition of a Natural Hazard that we discussed.

The volcano has been on high alert for some months now, as reported by the BBC

You can also check out the special HAZARDS Flipboard magazine which is being curated by a number of teachers.
Flipboard is an App on the iPads, and you could start to contribute your own articles to a journal that you have created as an alternative form of prep. Be creative and make sure that you are reading around the topics that we are covering in the classroom.