Tsunami's

A tsunami is created when large amount of waves are displaced, which happens when earthquakes, mass movement, or volcano eruptions occur under water.

The 2004 tsunami was the deadliest one in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand were hit the hardest.

It had a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3 and was the second largest earthquake ever recorded.
283 100 people were killed, 14 100 missing and 1 126 900 people displaced. The damage cost more that $7 billion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NfKZAiWRoE

This link takes you to a one of many videos that show the horror that the tsunami caused.

Cluster map

Climate Change Meetings

I was trilled to hear that Ireland recently hosted a climate change conference at the Mansion House, Dublin. It was held by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

The speaker was Dr Wilfried Haeberli, Director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service. He spoke about the recent changes in global glaciers. It was confirmed that the rate of melting ice caps has doubled in recent years. This will have a major impact on the environment, human health, natural hazards, water and energy supply.

I was glad to see that Ireland was helping to raise awareness of climate change. I hope that we host many more of these meeting's in the coming years.

Volcanoes

A volcano is a an opening in the planet's surface or crust which allows hot molten rock and ashes to espace the earth's surface. Over time these openings slowly turn into mountains.

Volcanoes are usually caused when tectonic plates are pulled apart or come together. An example of plates pulling apart is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This is found on the ocean floor of the Atlantic.

There are 3 types of volcanoes. Extinct, dormant and active.

An example of active volcanoes would be Mount Vesuvius in Italy. It erupted first in 79 A.D, destroying the town of Pompeii. Its last known eruption was in 1944, and there has been no further activity to date.

The eruption of Mount St. Helens, thought to be a dormant volcano, in 1980 was one of the worst volcanic disasters in the history of the U.S.A. However, it offered scientists an opportunity to examine and study a large volcanic eruption, which has therefore made them more aware of these kind of natural disasters.

The thing about volcanoes is that they can happen anytime without warning. We can only hope in time that scientists will be able to tell when they will erupt, preventing the loss of many lifes.