Welcome back!!

What an interesting summer it has been.  Personally I have been to Greece for the first time and loved it (apart from the extreme heat), I climbed another volcano and went deep into a huge cave system.  The UK was a bit cooler, and I finally got to see a stage performance of 1984, one of my favourite books, and just weeks after the final an FA Cup qualifying game. (1-1, a missed penalty and a red card) I always look forward to hearing the amazing places you have visited over the summer, please feel free to share them during the next three weeks.

 Over the past 8 weeks or so there have been so many stories happening around the world.  Who would have thought a country with more volcanoes from professional footballers would beat the country who 'invented football'?  That the UK would choose to 'Brexit', whatever that ultimately ends up meaning?  Or that the UK would surpass it's medal total from the London Olympics in Rio?  Globally we are witnessing the US presidential race heat up as November approaches and policing under the microscope more than ever.  

Geography has been in the news throughout the summer, much of what is above could be looked at through Geographical glasses, fracking refuses to frack off despite the dangers it poses.  Nuclear power is still on the UK agenda, linking strongly to China one of the world's super powers.  Flooding has hit parts of the USA with incredible footage of a woman being rescued from her car moments before drowning along with her dog.  

Sadly just this week Italy has experienced a terrible earthquake, something Romania is no stranger to.  At the time of writing the death toll is at 290 with huge amounts of damage.  I will put together a more detailed post on this over the week.  As somewhere I have huge affection for my thoughts are with Italy and everyone affected along with Burma which also suffered an Earthquake though it appears the death toll is significantly lower.  Read more about why there were different effects on the Earth Story Facebook page.

So a new term, this year KS3 have a bit more time for Geography, we will have 3 hours per fortnight.  This means one week you will have 2 lessons, and the week after 1 rotating through the year.   What will you be studying in KS3?  (KS4 and KS5 information will follow later)

Year 7 

Introducing Geography and the Geography of Romania and EU

Maps and Mapping

Africa

Volcanoes

Rivers

Year 8

Weather

Population

Cities

Climate Change

Coasts

Year 9

The Earth's Resources

Development

The Middle East

Russia

The Physical Geography of Romania

Please be aware that at times we will deviate from this to incorporate significant global events, last year we started the year exploring the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe, migration of course being a key issues with regards to population.

You will still be assessed using the schools assessment week, based on feedback from last year I will be adapting the criteria to make them simpler to use.

For resources I have requested the use of Kerboodle online text books which will improve the flexibility of our course, and means one less book to carry around and should mean less paper being used.  This will be used along with a range of other resources which are currently being developed with further information to follow soon.

After quite a lengthy post all that is left to say is enjoy the year and comment/email me with any questions, you will all have my email address.

Good luck!!

Santorini Volcano

If you have been to Santorini you will not know that island is Volcanic as part of a huge caldera, surrounding the Volcano of Nea Kamini.  If you arrived by boat then you will have travelled past the volcano and seen tourists trekking their way to the top.  If you were able to drag yourself away from the towns, sunsets and beaches you might have taken a boat trip out to learn a little bit more, even to swim in the hot springs on the far side.

Our knowledgeable guide informed us that there would be no chance of an eruption during our visit, though the magma chamber was slowly being filled up as the African plate is subducted under the Eurasian. As this happens the oceanic crust is destroyed ready for the next eruption.  Currently the volcano is classed as dormant, as a reminder that the status will one day change we kicked up some dirt and just below the surface the temperature of the stones was enough to burn your hands if you weren't careful.

The volcano island is made up of several craters relating to previous eruptions, the most recent being 1950.  You can see gases escaping from cracks in the rocks as you stare into a graveyard of the poorly secured hats littering the crater sides.

Another key point to notice is the different colour of the igneous (volcanic) rocks, this is due to the rate at which the rock cools and the amount of oxygen reacting with it as this happens.

It is unlikely there will be another eruption on the scale that destroyed the town of Akrotiri, Greece's very own Pompeii.  It has been difficult to date to the biggest eruption, it was sometime during 1600 BCE which impact the Mediterranean directly, causing destruction to settlements on Crete and potentially impacting global climate patterns, records in Egypt describe significant changes around the same time.

Once you've climbed up what better way to finish the trip than heading to the far side of the volcano for a swim in the hotspring where you notice the change in the temperature as you move closer to the island.  The water is supposed to be good for your skin, though not so good for a white swimming costume!!

Have you been somewhere Geographical you would like to write about?  Email me or speak to me when we start back at school.

For those of you interested here are a few more weblinks to explore for more information including a like webcam.

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/santorini.html
https://webcams.volcanodiscovery.com/Santorini
http://www.thisoldearth.net/Igneous-Rocks_color.cfm
https://www.santorini.com/archaeology/akrotiri.htm

Amazing colours

The town of Thira from Nea Kamini

Crater

Gas Vent

Monitoring Equipment

Plants slowly reappearing

The small port. Note the yellow water.