Brittany,

Your summaries are written in a clear and concise manner and your responses display empathy but could bring in a bit more from coursework. A few spelling and grammar errors present. Try reading your work out loud; sometimes your ears pick up errors that your eyes miss.

Variety of topics: floods, volcano, hurricane, earthquake, avalanche, wildfire, earthquake, flood. 8 articles is great but you didn’t get an even balance of 2 per section of the Geosphere.

Five entries for the Television Journal – you’re the first to have accomplished this goal!

Your Disaster is certainly realistic and consistent with what would happen in reality. It would have been nice if you worked in the Mercalli scale with your write-up. Your parting paragraph discussing what is happening with the plates could have been more developed and included earlier in the article. I liked how you had the disaster on your birthday (Cinco de Mayo) too bad it didn’t hit Mexico!

Overall level: 4-/4

gds

My Disaster

A destructive earthquake stuck Argentina on May 5th, causing numerous injuries, the destruction of a famous monument, hundreds of homes to be damaged and 33 fatalities.

The quake, which struck near the city of San Juan, was of a 7.0 magnitude ( U.S Geological Survey) It struck around 4:30 yesterday. Two after shocks have occurred, both clocking in at 4.0 magnitude, but they have not had any serious repercussions.
Most of the deaths from the earthquake are do to people being trapped, or killed by pieces of falling debris in their home I.e walls, chimneys, columns and heavy furniture. Search and Rescue teams made up of volunteers and officials have been working around the clock pulling people out of rubble. Many underground pipes have also burst in the area, adding onto the structural head ache that officials are experiencing.

Meanwhile, disaster relief camps have been set up by the Argentinean Red Cross and the government, giving people a place to stay and access to food and clean drinking water. Everyone there receives a certain daily quota of food and water.

Mariana Rodriguez, who is a mother of a 6 and 4 year old boys, whose house was completely destroyed by the quake said “ It’s hard being here. I still cannot believe that my home is gone, just like that. Its nothing but a pile of rubble. The kids don’t really understand that we have nothing to go back to. They keep saying to me, “mama why cant we go home. I want to go home mama.”
One of the many culture damages to come out of this earthquake is the fact the famous Pablo Francisco monument was destroyed, saddening the hearts of poetry fans everywhere.

Emergency response team leader , Jose Gonzal estimates that “It will take awhile for them to clean up the damage.” As it currently is, they do not want people heading back to their home for at least a couple of more days because they do not want anyone being hurt by falling debris from damaged buildings, or from trying to drive on damaged roads, which have had sand and mud erupt on them.

The earthquake is believed to be caused by the Nazca plate shoving itself under the South American plate, which is also why the area is one of the most seismically active areas.

In the News...

Event/Issue: Snow Storm
Component of Geosphere Affected: Atmosphere
Time and Date: Aired, January 5th, 2008, viewed January 7,2008
Channel/Station: C.B.C 12
Summary:
Atlantic Canada was barred under an enormous amount of snow over the past couple of days, as they were hit several times by a couple of snowstorms in 6 days.

In the news today

Event/Issue: Fog
Component of Geosphere Affected: Atmosphere
Time and Date: Jan. 7th, 2008, 7:23.
Channel/Station: Mix 97.
Summary:
Due to the fog, most of the buses in the area where cancelled, so many students had a extended vaction and a pretty awesome day because of it.

In the news today

Issue/Event: Flood
Component of Geosphere Affected: Hydrosphere
Time and Date -jan,05,20-07
Channel/Station: Website-http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/291332
Summary: A
levee broke in Nevada, causing freezing cold water to flood hundreds of homes and leaving over 1300 people stranded. The break is believed to be cuased by rodents who have made holes, weakaning the levee. People were rescude by boat and by helicoptres. No injuries have been reported.

Floods in British Columbia

Headline:Nechako ice jam floods 19 homes

Disaster: Flood ( Hydropshere)

Date:Monday, January 07, 2008

Source:http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=358de615-a880-4f72-9faf-9f0cd4238d28

Summary:
In the Prince George area in British Columbia, on Saturday, January the 5th, a section of a 28-day old ice jam broke off, floated down the Nechako River and got stuck downstream, causing water to spill out and flood both sides of the river bank. So far 9 houses have been submerged in 1.5 meters of water, while another 10 have been affected as well near the river. An evacuation order has been released for 24 homes, while alerts have issued for 47 homes and business along the Nechako. The ice jam itself measures to be 6 km in length, with it being more then 3.6 metres high in come places. Authorities report that the jam has the potential to remain for many months.

Response:
There seems to be little options for authorities while the flood continues. They can not really stop it, mainly just tell people to get out of the way of it. I feel bad for all of the people whose homes are submerged in water, because no one really knows when the jam will break itself up. With the weather being so unpredictable with global warming and all, they will just have to wait and see. It seems to be that flooding is the newest fashion for mother nature. I mean currently, that I know of ,there is a flood in Canada, the United States of America, Mozambique and Australia. As well flood watches for a couple of places in the United Kingdom. I do not really like to think about how soon, with the whole warming of the globe, floods are going to start to be a more common day occurrence. Hopefully, documenting the one we have now, can help us better prepare for the future, or we are in for one seriously wet future.

Volcanic Eruption in Chile

Headline:Chilean volcano spouts off

Disaster: Volcanic Eruption ( Lithosphere)

Date:Published: Jan. 3, 2008 at 2:17 AM

Source:http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/01/03/chilean_volcano_spouts_off/7793/

Summary:
On Wednesday January 2nd, the Llaima volcano erupted, spewing lava and smoke, causing more than 150 people to be evacuated in the area. It was mainly tourists, with about a dozen officials who where evacuated and flown by helicopter 31 miles away to Melipueuco where they were given food and water. It is reported that the lava flew as high as 900 feet into the air, with a 12 mile smoke plume rising up from the volcano. It is believed that it started to erupt on Tuesday, January 1st. The emergency officials were concerned that serious forest fires might erupt in the forest near the volcano, but thankfully nothing has happened so far. The area near Llaima will remain clear for the next couple of the days for safety precautions, while it is being evaluated when the volcano could possible re-open.

Response:Well needless to say, I think those tourists got more then they bargained for. They probably thought it was all nice and safe seeing as how the volcano has been dormant for 13 years, boy did they ever get a nasty surprise. Visiting a volcano seems to be a tricky thing to decide, on one hand it would be pretty cool to see one up close, because then you might have a better understanding of it in general. On the other hand, it could just decide that the day you are there would be a lovely day to let off some steam, erupt and kill you. However the likely hood of you , as a tourist, being killed by a bid nasty volcano eruption is very slim seeing as how volcano’s are always being watched to ensure the safety of everyone and to document the basic day to day happens of a volcano to better understand how they work.

Hurricane Felix

Headline:Hurricane Felix grows to 'potentially catastrophic' Category 5

Disaster: Hurricane ( Atmosphere)

Date:5:24 a.m. EDT, Mon September 3, 2007

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/weather/09/02/storm.felix/index.html#cnnSTCText

Summary:
Hurricane Felix has developed into a Category 5 storm, according to the U.S National Hurricane center on September 2th. The Honduran government has issued a hurricane watch, extending from Limon to the Nicaragua border, as a result of Felix’s ferocity. Felix is expected to move closer to Central America on Tuesday, September 4th. Meanwhile, a tropical storm watch remains in place in Jamaica and the Grand Cayman Islands, while all watches and warnings for the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, have been cancelled. Felix has had already hit Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, over the past couple of days with heavy winds and rains. It is believed that pass under Honduran, hit Belize either Tuesday ( September 4th) or Wednesday (September 5th), then maybe reach the United States by the weekend.

Response:
I think the worst part about hurricane Felix was how much rain it brought. The rain seemed to cause more problems then the winds of the hurricane. It caused mudslides, landslides and flooding. Having a strong hurricane hit you, then having 3 more natural disasters occur because of it must, in a word, suck. It should be noted that Nicaragua did suffer many infrastructure damages due to the strong winds, but suffered even more from mudslides, landslides and floods. Seeing as how out of 133 people who died, 130 of them were Nicaraguan, we can tell that the after effects of the hurricane did just as much, and in some cases, even more then the initial touch down of Felix. Kudos goes to the people of Nicaragua, because they immediately went to work helping each other get on their feet, through organizations like the Nicaraguan red cross, and the media.

In the news today

Issue/Event: Earthquake
Component of Geosphere Affected: Lithosphere
Time and Date -jan,06,2007, 12:13 am.
Channel/Station -57, CTVN1
Summary:
An Earthquake of 6.7 magnitude struck Queen Charlotte Islands today. There have been no reports of damage or injury. Offiacls say that if the quake had occured onland it's effect would have been more serious and servre.

In the news toady

Issue/Event -Winter Storm
Component of Geosphere Affected -Biosphere
Time and Date -jan,05,2007 11:39 pm.
Channel/Station -57, CTVN1
Summary: California was one of the many states hit hard by powerful winter storms. The third storm hit the west coast, as a result hundres of thousands of homes and bussiness's are without power. Closer to the coast pounding raind cuased floods .Numerous amounts of people were afraid of mudslides, seeing as how the recent forest fires burned away most of the vegetaion, to they left the area. It is said that more snow and rain are on the way.

Indonesia Earthquake

Headline:Quake strikes Indonesia, tsunami alerts issued

Disaster: Earthquake/Tsunami ( Lithosphere/Hydropshere)

Date:Sep 12, 2007 11:59 PM

Source:http://www.thestar.com/article/255739

Summary:
An earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck Indonesia, Thursday September 12th. The quake caused many buildings to collapse and tsunami alerts to be released for the area. It occurred on the heels of another quake that struck the day before in south Asia, once again collapsing buildings and injuring dozens in Indonesia. Even though the centers of both quakes are located closely together, scientists believe that they are two separate quakes. Indonesia issued, then cancelled, then reissued a tsunami alert for the area. After Wednesday’s 8.4 magnitude quake many people fled their homes and went inland, fearing another repeat of the tsunami that struck the area in 2004. Authorities in different surrounding nations warned all of their citizens of the Tsunami alert. Only a small tsunami, of 3 feet, struck Padang after the quake. Due to telephone lies and electricity going out and being unusable across a large portion of Indonesia, making it very difficult to receive accurate information about how many citizens are injured or dead. Indonesia is prone to seismic activity due to its location on the “Ring of Fire.”

Response:
These people can not seem to catch a break. They live through one of them most terrible natural disasters to date, only to be struck by simultaneous earthquakes a couple of years later. To have one earthquake is bad enough, but having two, both of equally destructive force, is just unbelievable. At least the governments responded efficiently. To be issuing tsunami alerts in places as far away as Kenya and Tanzania, is pretty darn impressive. The one that I thought to be the most up to date technology wise was the National Disaster Warning centre in Thailand sending txt messages to hundred’s of officials in different provinces. I personally think that is really smart of them to do, seeing as how that is one of the most used ways of communication in this day and age. Obviously, citizens and officials have learned what they should do when a disaster like this occurs. I do not mean to imply that there is some text book way to deal with the horror of a situation like this, I just mean that they reacted well given the present circumstances and we all could learn from there experiences.

Whistler Avalanche

Headline:Avalanche kills man in closed area of Whistler

Disaster: Avalanche(Lithosphere)

Date:Tue. Jan. 1 2008 10:05 PM ET

Source:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080101/avalanche_death_080101

Summary:
One man was killed, and another injured when an avalanche occurred on a permanently closed area of Whistler, in British Columbia. The RCMP believe that an avalanche was triggered by the two men when they attempted to ski and snowboard in the closed off area. No names have been released yet, but the man who was skiing was the one who died, while the snow boarder suffered serious, but not life threatening injuries. Authorities urge that people respect the closed off area’s and leave them be as they can cause avalanches which places many people at risk.

Response:

I am sorry, but what is wrong with these people? Why would you endanger not only your life, but the lives of the people around you just to satisfy some crazy thrill seeking addiction you have? They purposely went to an area of the mountain that has been off limits for 20 years, right after avalanche warnings had been released about the mountain. Where is the brains in that. I’m sorry but saying life is too short to live by the rules does not excuse someone for doing this act. One of them is dead. I am pretty sure he realizes now how short life is to just through it away to get that next big thrill. At least they were the only ones who were hurt in this accident, imagine what could have happened if they had acted in a similar stupid manor on the main trails, possibly causing even more people to be hurt. I just read another article recently that talks about how the man who survived might be charged for setting off the avalanche. I personally think he should be charged. I know he lost a friend in this, but he put not only his life, his friends life, and the rest of the people on the mountain at serious risk, and he should pay the price for it.

California Wild Fires

Headline:California wildfires turn deadly
Disaster: Wild Fire( Biosphere)
Date:Oct 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Source:http://www.thestar.com/article/269126


Summary:
On October 21, almost a dozen wildfires spread throughout Southern California, driven by powerful Santa Ana winds. So far, only one fatality is recorded, while there are many people injured, several destroyed homes, a church and the famous Castle Kashan has been severely damaged.. Hundreds have been forced to leave their homes. Authorities report that most of the people injured were either hikers or illegal immigrants. The fires are only part of a few that are plaguing the wide spread are of Los Angles to San Diego, due to it being one of the most driest seasons to date. The blaze started in the Malibu Canyons Officials say that the fire is not contained what so ever, so they are basically at the mercy of the wind, and thousands of homes are in danger because the fire is expected to burn for another 2-3 days. When releasing water from aircrafts onto the fire was attempted, the erratic winds made the effort useless. It is believed that down power lines may be the cause of the fires.

Response:
Well it seems as though there is not much officials can do about the fires. The effectiveness of their fire fighting abilities seems to completely disappear when faced with a dry season and erratic winds. There is no way that they really have of successfully keeping this fire contained, which is very scary considering how much damage is going occur because of that. It makes me wonder if we can learn from this type of situation, and develop new techniques and technologies that will allow us to defend ourselves, seeing as how with global temperatures on the rise it is more then likely going to occur again. The best that they can do now is monitor the fire, making sure that the citizens are informed every step of the way, and protected to the best of the authorities capabilities.

Chile Earthquake

Headline:Major quake strikes northern Chile; 2 dead, hundreds of homes damaged

Disaster: Earthquake ( Lithosphere)

Date: November 14

Source:http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=w111445A

Summary:
An earthquake of 7.7( U.S Geological Survey) magnitude struck Chile on November the 14. The quake hit a wide spread region, from the capital city in the south, to the other side of the continent. There were several after shocks, including three that were of a 5.0 magnitude. It was reported that only two people have were killed and over a hundred people have been injured. The two people who were killed were women from Tocopilla, a city located 40 kilometers from the epicenter, who died when their house fell in on them. There was a tsunami warning issued, by the U.S Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for Chile and Peru, but was later cancelled. Officials report that there was damage, but not as much as one would normally expect from a quake of this size according to scientist from Chile and the United Sates. They believe it is because most of the areas that were struck were not immensely populated.

Response:
This might sound odd, but I thought this earthquake went fairly well. My heart does go out to the victims and their families of the deceased and injured, but all things considered this quake was not as bad as it could be. In the past quakes that have hit Chile, have killed more and caused more damage, then this quake.. In 1960 an 9.5 magnitude earthquake ( the largest recorded in the 20th century) struck Chile and killed over 5,700 people. Also on June 13,2005 a magnitude 7.8, only one point more then this quake killed 11 people and left thousands homeless. The governments response was excellent in my books. By not only evacuating schools, hospitals and many other buildings in several cities within Chile and releasing a tsunami warning, they made sure that their citizens were safe and secure. True enough, they went on to cancel the tsunami warning, but the fact that they bothered to release it is what matters. Its not worth the risk of saying it might and it might no happen, so lets not bother, and end up having more deaths and damages on their hands. In the end, I guess you can say that everyone was lucky because the quake struck mostly non heavily populated areas.