Olympic medal winners

Keep up to date with the location of Olympic medal winners

Largest earthquake for 25 years hits England!

Did the earth move for you this morning? We didn't feel the earthquake in Guildford but plenty of people did.

An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 struck just after 1am this morning with the epicentre at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. Read the full story on teh BBC website here.

Jumper - Anywhere is possible....with Geography!

Santa should relocate to Kyrgyzstan...

According to an article on the BBC website Santa should relocate to Kyrgyzstan.....

Read the full article and the reasons why here

Thanks to Mrs Wright, a Head of Geography at a school in Leighton Buzzard for pointing this article out!

Father Christmas and climate change

Turn your sound up.....




Thanks to Steve, a Field Studies Leader in Lancashire for pointing this out!

Foot and mouth disease update

The strain of diasease has now been identified and it is identical to that used at the Institute for Animal Health, at Pirbright, three miles from the farm. Defra could not say the laboratory was the source but has increased the size of the protection and surveillance zones covering farms in the area. (from BBC news website)

The map below shows the new, enlarged protection and surveillance zones. The map can be enlarged using the tool on the top of the 'scribd' page below (map from Defra)

Foot and mouth disease found on a farm near Guildford

Foot and mouth disease has been discovered on a farm close to Guildford.

This is taken from the BBC website: "Cattle at a farm in Surrey have been found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease. Animals on the farm near Guildford have tested positive for the disease which swept the UK and wreaked havoc in 2001. A 3km protection zone has been put in place around the premises and a UK ban imposed on movement of all livestock."

Read the full story here and now updated here which includes a link to the map below (where it is much clearer!)

The map below shows the 3km protection zone and the 10km surveillance zone that have been put in place. This information is taken from Defra. (http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/pdf/declaration-pz-sz-rz-070803.pdf)

Cycling around the world

How would you feel about cycling 18,000 miles? On Sunday 5th August 2007, Mark Beaumont will cycle out of Paris on a solo attempt to break the 18,000 mile World Record to become the fastest person to have ever circumnavigated the globe by bicycle. You will be able to follow the full adventure as it happens by clicking on his website here

He plans to beat the current world record which is 276 days 19 hrs 15 min - just over 9 months. Mark is planning to smash this by cycling around the globe in under 210 days. This seven month race will include 20 countries through Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and North America. We wish him luck!

Missouri river floods

The Missouri River has flooded, meaning thousands of people have had to leave their homes. See more pictures here from the BBC

Queen carbon off-sets

The Queen's current visit to the USA will be the first one where she 'carbon off-sets'. Details and map below from the BBC website.

"The tour is the Queen's first carbon-offset state visit, where a donation is made to an environmental charity to offset the plane journeys made by the royal party. "

Total air miles - 13,317 km or 8,275 milesAmount of CO2 emitted based on scheduled flights - 1. 5 tonnesEstimated offset cost per person - £13.20 to £14.18 ($26.22-$28.17) depending on type of offset package
Source: The Carbon Neutral Company carbon calculator

Tornado wipes out 95% of town!

A tornado has hit the town of Greensburg in Kansas, USA, wiping out 95% of the buildings, killing at least 9 people and injuring 60 others.

Look at the links below for more information and images / video.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2007-05-05-kansas_N.htm This includes a flash animation of 'how tornadoes form'. The videos are definately worth a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6628613.stm

Italy and volcanoes!

How topical! Year 7 were looking at Italy and we found that Mount Etna had been erupting today. Click here to go to a BBC webpage where you can click on a video of today's eruption.

We then got talking about Mount Vesuvius and I promised some more information so here goes.....

Find out what happened to these people by using the links below:

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/pompeii/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_portents_01.shtml



http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/pompeii.html not only tells you what happened, but there is a quiz and you can build your own virtual volcano.

Earthquake hits Kent!

An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale has hit Kent today (Saturday 28th April 2007) at 8.19 this morning. The map (from BBC News) shows that experts believe the epicentre to have been a few miles off the coast in the English Channel. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) measured the quake at 4.7, although the BBC news website states it measured 4.3 on the Richter scale.

Look at the following links for more information:
Earthquake strikes part of Kent from BBC News
Eyewitness accounts on the BBC News website
Lots of pictures and more details of the damage here

A huge crack in cliffs at Barton-on Sea which could cause a massive landslide could be linked to the earthquake. Read about it here.

Tsunami strikes Solomon Islands

An earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale has caused a tsunami on the Solomon Islands where at least 12 people have died. The following is taken from BBC news:

"The Solomon Islands has a population of about 500,000 people - many of them living on remote and widely scattered islands. Many people live in houses made of palm and bamboo on the islands' beaches.

Reports coming in of damage on outlying islands include:

• 300 houses destroyed in Sasamungga village on Choiseul island
• four people missing on Mono island
• waves seen 200 metres inland on Simbo island
• Ranunga island also hit
• bodies seen floating in the sea

Witnesses described the water reaching 50-70 metres (164-230 feet) inland on Ghizo.

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6516759.stm for the full story.

Large earthquake hits Japan

An large earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck off the west coast of Japan's largest island, Honshu on Sunday 25th March 2007. A tsunami warning was also issued. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6492473.stm for more information and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6492931.stm for pictures from the earthquake.