Mount St Helens Eruption (MEDC)

Where is Mount St Helens?

Located in Washington State, North West USA. Mount St Helens is a volcano in the Cascade Range of Mountains.

Click here for the Mount St Helens Volcano Web Cam, for up-to-date images of the volcano.
Key Dates:

Click here to see the key dates in the 1980 eruption from the volcanolive website.

Video of the 1980 Eruption



What happened?

The volcano didn't just erupt from the top, as expected. The side of the volcano was blown away as well due to the main vent being plugged by solidified lava from a previous eruption.

A pyroclastic flow (a hot avalanche of gas , ash, and rocks that rushes down the side of a volcano after an explosive eruption) moved at 300 km/hr. Trees over 360 square kilometres were burnt! 7000 animals were killed and 12 million salmon in a fish farm were killed.
61 people died.
Hot magma melted snow on the top of the volcano, this caused mudslides that flowed at 35 metres a second.
An ash cloud rose 24 km into the sky. Planes had to be diverted.
When the ash settled, it made a layer 15 cm deep. This made roads unusable and ruined crops.
Cost of the damage by the ash was $175 million!
After the eruption the volcano was 365 metres lower than it used to be.

Long-Term Effects

The US Government gave $951 million in aid to rebuild industry and compensate people.
The area is now a tourist attraction. the local economy is now wealthier than before the eruption.
There is now an increased danger from flooding, due to the new landscape.

Click here to visit the 'Geography-site' for a report on the eruption.
USDA Forestry Service website with further information about Mount St Helens. Click here
Click here for further in-depth information about the eruption.

Click here for a 360 degree panorama of Mount St Helens in 2006 (you will need QuickTime to view this)

Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Year 9 -Why is Rosa doing Annie's job?

The notes below will help you to finish your write up about the mystery activity completed in the lesson on Monday.

Who is Rosa?

• Rosa is a 16 year old girl who lives in the Manila, in the Philippines.
• She has left home to work as a machinist for Manila Fabrics.
• Rosa works for £4 per 12 hour shift, 6 days a week. Sometimes she works 7 days a week.
• 500 machinists also work in the factory where Rosa works.
• Rosa's company provide a room for her to sleep in, which she shares with 5 other people.

Who is Annie?

• Annie lives in Cheshire. She is married with 2 children and is unemployed.
• She is a skilled fabric machinist, now looking for another job.
• The factory where Annie used to work belonged to ClothesFirst, a UK clothing manufacturer.

The situation created at ClothesFirst

• Marks and Spencers profits were decreasing, their shareholders were becoming annoyed.
• In 1990 75% of clothes sold in M+S were made in Britain, now its less than 30%.
• M+S informed ClothesFirst that they were unable to pay them such high prices to make their clothes.
• In order to survive ClothesFirst closed its factory in Cheshire and moved its operations overseas, where costs are cheaper.
• M+S clothes are now slighly cheaper and its profits are slowly rising.

Click here to see the sort cards from the lesson

Now answer the question: 'Why is Rosa doing Annie's job?'

Year 11 Montserrat Eruption (LEDC)

Montserrat is a small Caribbean island located on the plate boundary between the North American and Caribbean plate.
In 1995 it had a population of 11,000.

On July 18th 1995 the dormant volcano, Chances Peak, began to wake.

To gain up-to-date information about volcano activity on Montserrat, click here.

Short Term Effects of the Eruption

• Forests and rich farmland destroyed by lahars and covered by layers of ash.
• 23 people died.
• Many settlements buried in ash.
• Many people evacuated: To the 'safe' north of the island, to other islands and to the UK.
• Capital City (Plymouth) almost totally destroyed and evacuated.
• Only hospital destroyed.
• Airport destroyed.
• Many roads destroyed.

Responses to the Eruption

• People evacuated to the North of the island, housed in tents and makeshift homes, with little food, poor sanitation and no power.
• UK government provided £55 million in aid.
• Hospital reopened in a former school.

Long Term Effects of the Eruption

• Many people left unemployed as the islands tourist industry collapsed.
• Capital City left abandoned, most people resettled in the North of the island.

Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Year 11 Volcanoes

A volcano is a vent in the earths surface where magma erupts to the surface. Above ground magma is called lava.

Volcanoes do have a distinct structure, but this does vary depending upon the type of plate boundary that the volcano is located on.

Click here for a useful site for volcanic terminology

Where are volcanoes found?

Volcanoes occur in narrow belts along compressional (destructive) and tensional (constructive) plate boundaries. Many of the worlds volcanoes located along compressional plate boundaries are found around the Pacific Ring of Fire. An example of where volcanoes are located on tensional plate boundaries is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which has over time constructed the country of Iceland.


Structure of a volcano










Although volcanoes do have a distinct structure, their appearance depends upon the type of plate boundary they are found upon.

Shield Volcanoes
These are found along tensional plate boundaries.

They are low with gently sloping sides.

Lava is basic so it flows quite a distance before it cools.

Eruptions are quite frequent and tend to be gentle.

Composite Volcanoes

Composed of alternating layers of lava and ash.

Eruptions maybe a pyroclastic flow, rather than a lava flow. A pyroclastic flow is a mixture of hot steam, ash, rock and dust.

Eruptions tend to quite violent.

Found along compressional plate boundaries.

Images courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Year 8 Merryhill Shopping Centre

Out-of-Town shopping started in the UK in 1986 with the opening of the Metro Centre in Gateshead, near to Newcastle Upon Tyne. From this point onwards many out-of-town (regional shopping centres) have been built.

The Merryhill Centre opened in 1989. Built near to the town of Dudley it offered shoppers from the nearby city of Birmingham and surrounding towns a different shopping experience.

Advantages of Merryhill:

Friendly atmosphere
Everything indoors, protected from the weather
Disabled access
Free car parking
Sucurity guards
Restaurants
Cinemas

Although Merryhill attracts many shoppers every year, its creation has had a negative impact on the local town of Dudley. Shop owners in the town have reported a 70% decrease in the number of people shopping in Dudley. Many of the chain stores e.g. Marks and Spencer, Allied Carpets, Next, BHS, Littlewoods, have now shut their branch in Dudley and have located in the Merry Hill Centre.

Dudly now uses tourism as a means of attracting shoppers. The zoo, castle and the 'Black Country Museum' are used to attract visitors to the town, where hopefully they will spend money in the local shops.

The government have now stopped the policy of building out-of-town shopping centres, but many still feel that the negative impact on local towns that surround these centres can never be changed.

Link to Merry Hill website

Link to Trafford Centre website

Link to Bluewater website

Link to Meadowhall website

Link to Metro Centre website

Image courtesy of westfield.com

Welcome note

Welcome to the Archbishop Blanch geography blog website.

The aim of this blog is to support pupil learning away from the classroom. I am hoping that it will be extensively used by pupils to support their learning from school. Parents are also welcome to use the site to support their child in their learning that takes place at home.

I will aim to update the site as often as I can with information from lessons and further activities that pupils can access via the internet.

Please bear with me as this is the first time that I have tried anything like this and I suppose its success will be determined by how often pupils use the site.