What caused the Soufrire Hills Volcano to erupt?

What caused the Soufrière Hills Volcano to erupt? The Caribbean island of Montserrat is situated on a destructive plate boundary. A plate boundary occurs when two of the plates that make up the surface of the earth meet. Underneath Montserrat the Atlantic plate is slowly being forced under the Caribbean plate. This happens because the oceanic plate is denser than continental plate. Convection currents pull the dense Atlantic plate into the mantle where intense heat and friction cause the rock to melt. This molten rock is lighter than the surrounding rock, forcing it to rise through cracks in the in the rock towards the earth's surface. Molten rock or magma gathers under the volcano until the pressure is so great that it is forced up through a vent towards the surface of the earth. The Soufrière Hills Volcano produces a thick sticky lava called andesite. The lava is so thick that it builds up at the top of the volcano in a dome until it becomes too heavy and the dome collapses. When the dome collapses hot rocks, gases and ash are released from the volcano causing the following hazards. Pyroclastic flows are extremely fast-moving flows of lava, hot rocks and gas that flow down the side of the volcano. Pyroclastic Surges are fast-moving clouds of hot ash that travel with the pyroclastic flow. Tiny pieces of volcanic ash are blasted into the air forming a plume of ash. As it

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Lognor Case Study

Longnor Longnor is a village in Staffordshire, 35 miles of SE Manchester. It has a population of 350 people and is in the Peak District National Park. It has numerous problems such as shortages of work, affordable housing and poor access to services. With the village of Longnor lying on the edge of the Peak District National Park, it attracts many tourists and holiday makers. These tourists and visitors travel long distances to visit the national park and need to stay somewhere when they arrive. There are no hotels in the village and very few bed and breakfasts, so one of the main sources of accommodation are holiday cottage rentals. Families and homeowners have second homes in Longnor, often which they rent out and visit. With many of the houses in Longnor being brought as holiday homes, second homes or retirement homes, there is a distinct lack of housing for the local people. As Longnor is within a commuting distance for Manchester and the houses are much cheaper than Manchester, villages like Longnor are attracting more and more YUPPIES and commuters. Also villages like Longnor are attractive to retirees as they are quiet and peaceful, they have places to walk and relax with lots of open spaces and greenery and clean air. They are far enough out of busy cities and younger generations but are within distance of local towns. With so many commuters and retirees buying

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Land Use Change In Northampton!

Deepak Chandi LAND USE CHANGE IN NORTHAMPTON! PART 1 (a): Northampton is a large market town best known for its footwear and leather industries. The town has recently grown outwards to the east and west. Northampton is situated around the River Nene. INDUSTRY: Many of the old industrial sites are located with in the CBD. Companies like Latimer & Crick; Corn Merchants use to be located near South Bridge (Smiths Timber Yard use to be located at the bottom of Bridge Street. Padmore & Barnes, shoe manufacturers use to be located on St. James Road. I believe that these old industries were located in these areas mainly as a result of transport links. Smiths Timber Yard was located at the bottom of Bridge Street mainly because the River Nene flows around Bridge Street so therefore this would be an excellent means of transport for the Timber yard. Padmore & Barnes was located on St. James Rd mainly due to the fact that a railway line runs through the area leading to other parts of Northampton and eventually linking up to other parts of the country. Also, the River Nene runs through the St. James area so therefore again creating good means of transport. Many of the new industrial sites are located out of the town centre. Brackmills Industrial Estate is located off the Bedford Road A428. The Crow Lane developments are located near the Billing garden Centre. Also there is the

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China's One Child Policy Ks3 Yr 9 Geography Assessment Marked 7c

I n 1979, three years after Chairman Mao's death, China introduced what would become one of the most controversial policies ever to pass through a modern government: the 1 child policy. This was a policy designed to help control China's rapidly increasing population. It encouraged families to have only 1 child and gave benefits for those who abided by this and imposed penalties for those who did not. During the 1940s all residents of China were encouraged to have large families which would be used to fuel the army and for use in agriculture and food production. When Mao took power in 1949 he too was for a large population within China and shortly after taking power he declared: "of all things in the world, people are the most important". He would then go on to condemn the use of birth control, eventually banning it, as he said it was a capitalist plot being used to weaken the country leaving it vulnerable to attack. He used this growing population to support his "human wave" defence policy as he was currently fearing attack from the US and Soviet Union. He is noted to have frequently stated "with every mouth comes two hands attached". Mao urged the population to grow to such an extent that by the end of his reign China's population would have doubled in size. However, in the early 1960s Mao and the Chinese government began see that rapid population growth (particularly

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Why do similar kinds of hazards have different impacts in different places?

Why do similar kinds of hazards have different impacts in different places? Similar kinds of hazards can cause a different scale of impact in different places due to many factors, the main influence being the countries economy. A hazard is an unexpected event or process which affects people, causing loss of life or injury, economic damage, disruption to people's lives or environmental degradation. A natural hazard could become a disaster when is has serious effects such as a large loss of life or property. The disaster risk has many factors which could increase or decrease the risk. This can be shown in an equation; Disaster Risk = Hazard X Vulnerability Capacity Hazard relates to the frequency of the hazard or the scale of the hazard, for example the magnitude of an earthquake, or the height of a wave. Vulnerability is the conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards. Capacity is the combination of strengths and resources available that reduce risk. Hurricane Katrina, 2005, New Orleans. Hazard: Hurricane Katrina passed east of New Orleans and winds downtown were in the Category 4 range with a minimum central pressure of 902 millibars and frequent intense gusts and tidal surge. 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet of water.

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Marine Pollution

Marine Pollution I am writing to convince the UK Government that it is time to take action to protect the seas around us. The harm being done to our oceans is damaging in many ways - not least because with increasing speed, we are severely depleting the world's stock of fish. For four centuries the seas have been considered on inexhaustible resource from which people could take as much as they wanted. Now we have to face up to the fact that our oceans are not limitless - more and more people competing for less and less fish are which is making the existing crisis worse. Many marine ecosystems are at the point of collapse and will be destroyed unless we act quickly to protect them from the most serious threats. Pollution from ships Ships can pollute waterways and oceans in many ways. Oil spills can have devastating effects. While being toxic to marine life, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the components in crude oil, are very difficult to clean up, and last for years in the sediment and marine environment. Discharge of cargo residues from bulk carriers can pollute ports, waterways and oceans. In many instances vessels intentionally discharge illegal wastes despite foreign and domestic regulation prohibiting such actions. Ships create noise pollution that disturbs natural wildlife, and water from ballast tanks can spread harmful algae and other invasive

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Discuss the negative impacts of Urbanisation

Discuss the negative impacts of Urbanisation Many small town dwellers and villagers had left their hometown for the cities in search of higher standard of living. This movement from rural areas to big cities is called urbanization. Thus, urbanization is the process by which there is an increase in the number and the proportion of people living in the urban settlements and the amount of industrialization of the settlement. It also refers to the increase in the size of land area occupied by urban settlements such as towns and cities. Although urbanization has brought about numerous positive impacts, it also has its share of disadvantages as well. The nature and scale of impact, be it positive or negative, will vary depending on the level of development of the country. The negative impacts of urbanization shall be discuss via the economic , environmental, social and cultural aspect. The main negative economic impact of urbanization is unemployment. With massive migration from rural areas, jobs in the urban area may not be created fast enough to meet the needs. Therefore, the first problem faced by newly arrived migrant in the urban area is finding a job. While it is true that opportunities exist in cities, it is also true that the competition for these opportunities is fierce as there are more demands for jobs than are available. This is made even more difficult because

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Why did so many people die in the 2010 Haiti earthquake?

On the 12th January 2010, a tragic 7.0 magnitude quake on the Richter scale struck near Port au Prince in Haiti. This devastating earthquake was caused by a conservative plate boundary which had not caused an earthquake for 200years. 3,500,000 people were affected by the quake, 220,000 were estimated to have died, and over 300,000 people were injured. Over 188,383 houses were badly damaged 105,000 were destroyed by the earthquake (293,383 in total) and 1.5m people became homeless. After the quake there were 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris in Port au Prince which was enough to fill a line of shipping containers stretching end to end from London to Beirut (The capital of Lebanon). Furthermore, 4,000 schools were damaged or destroyed and 60% of Government and administrative buildings, 80% of schools in Port-au-Prince and 60% of schools in the South and West Departments were destroyed or damaged. The impact of this was one of the most devastating anyone had ever witnessed. However, why did San Francisco earthquake (Loma Prieta) in 1980 which was magnitude of 6.9 in the Richter scale only cause 69 deaths compared to the death toll of 220,000 in Haiti? The area with the most damage, Port-au-Prince, was built on loose sedimentary rock, which amplifies the seismic waves and intensifies them. We can see how much extra damage the loose sediment does as houses that were

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Case Study: Gambias Youthful Population. What are the positive and negative impacts?

Case Study: Gambia's Youthful Population Gambia is located in West Africa as shown by the map below. It is a small country of only 11,000km². Why is Gambia's population youthful? As Gambia is an LEDC, they lack the funds to employ a vast amount of doctors to the area. This means that for every doctor, there are 14,536 patients meaning that the inhabitants don't receive much healthcare. This has contributed to a relatively short life expectancy of just 54 years for a man and 57 years for a woman. The lack of healthcare available has also meant that there is an extremely high infant mortality rate of 73 per 1000 people, even though it is lower than it has been in the past. As many children die at an early age, parents tend to have a large number of children to help with daily tasks, to bring a higher income to the family and to look after the parents when they reach ill health. Gambia has a high birth rate of 40 per 1000 people because of this and in 2003, the average fertility rate was 5.13. What are the positive and negative impacts? Due the high birth rate, falling infant mortality rate and improvements in the level of healthcare available, the population has been increasing rapidly. In fact, Gambia's population doubles every 28 years and in 2009, it is estimated to be around 1.7million people. 63.55% of the population is estimated to be aged below 25 years and only

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Sea Defence. Which is better: hard or soft engineering?

Which is better: hard or soft engineering? Hard engineering options tend to be expensive, short-term options. They may also have a high impact on the landscape or environment and be unsustainable. Hard engineering is the controlled disruption of natural processes by using man-made structures. An example of hard engineering is a sea wall, these walls are built on the edge of a coastline and made to protect the base of cliffs and also to limit the amount of coastal erosion on a cliff-face were land is being absorbed by the sea. These walls could also prevent coastal flooding. This type of hard engineering is good as it has many aspects and is effective. Disadvantages of creating a sea wall are that it is very expensive to build; the curves in the sea wall reflect the wave's energy back to into the sea, therefore the waves remain powerful. Another disadvantage is that the walls erode after time and the cost of maintenance is high. Another example of hard engineering is groyne, a groyne is a wooden barrier built at a right angle to the beach. Groynes are built to prevent the movement of beach material along the coast by long shore drift. This allows the build-up of a beach; beaches are a natural defence against erosion and also an attraction for tourists. Disadvantages of building a groyne are that it can be seen as unattractive and is also costly to build and maintain. A

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