#HowIUsedGISToday

1/ Using @sentinel_hub EO browser to collect satellite secondary data to explore this week's eruption in Iceland.

This can be a teach from the front lesson or whole class task. 2/ First, open EO Browser (create an account if you don't already have one - the password is remembered by your Chrome account future sign ins).

Search for Iceland and zoom into the Reykjanes Peninsula.

1/ Possible (likely?) immanent eruption in the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland.

Evidence has been building that another eruption is probable in Iceland, close to the previous eruptions. This thread will follow this developing story.

🧵An unfolding thread🧵 2/ First, what is the evidence over the past weeks and months?

a) Ground deformation
InSAR data reveal significant ground uplift in the region close to the Blue Lagoon, suggesting the upward movement of magma in the crust & towards the surface.

An unfolding thread helping us understand the nature of the devastating earthquake affecting Turkey and Syria.

🧵 1/ Size

The main shock at 4.00 am was M 7.8. This is a major quake - there are typically around 15-20 of these globally per year. But the aftershock today was 7.5, much bigger than is typical (which are normally no greater than 1 magnitude less than the main shock).

1/ #GeographyTeacher quiz!

In the 1960s, Bruce Heezen was one of the first to connect the Mid Atlantic Ridge round South Africa to the Indian Ridge.

But he realised there was a problem: how could the Atlantic & Indian Ocean both be extending if Africa was in the middle? 2/ But he was operating with Harry Hess' convection cells model as the mechanism for moving plates: the plates are passive passengers, riding on large convection cells in the mantle. This is how Geoffrey Davies outline's Heezen's logic.

1/ There is a social justice dimension to this week's record breaking temperatures in GB, as outlined in this map and article by the BBC. Why does this issue exist and how can we adapt our urban environments to address it?

🧵

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-621264… 2/

1/ Just started our summer term project with Y13s - a DME about the 2021 Icelandic eruption called 'Can we Stop the Lava?'

Today, it was using GIS to explore the tectonic setting of Iceland & it's relationship to volcanism 60 Ma. in NI!

An ongoing 🧵 2/ We looked at the opening of the North Atlantic over the past 60 Ma.

A🧵of some of my graphics on tectonics.

1/ The "world premiere"😉of my summary graphic on the main processes at work causing plates motion. I shared this in my #GAConf22 session this afternoon, but now it's time to share it more widely! 2/ Blank versions of the above if you want to incorporate them into your own presentations for your pupils.

1/ A large underwater volcanic eruption has occurred at Tonga, as captured in this dramatic satellite imagery.

A thread 🧵 2/ It has prompted a tsunami warming for Tonga and other nearby locations such as New Zealand.

Source @inewsnz

1/ How externalising thinking graphically on paper can support generative learning. A 🧵.

Context: exploring how various factors influencing temperature interact along a line of latitude. 2/ Step 1: guided recall of the theory on the factors via whole class Q&A captured on flip chart to reduce effect of transience & provide external memory support.

@geotayler @Global_Gilbert @EnserMark @MrGoodwin23 1/ Nyiragongo is a fascinating volcano. As far as I've been able to find out, the following would be helpful for you.
• Composite volcanoes are formed when you have magma with high silicate content.
• These typically correspond with convergent boundaries, but that is... @geotayler @Global_Gilbert @EnserMark @MrGoodwin23 2/...better seen as an association rather than a direct cause i.e. it is something that typically (but not exclusively) happens at convergent boundaries. What is that thing?

1/ How do we move on from outdated and overly simplified models of mantle convection?

A thread 🧵

Modern tomography suggests mantle convection is best *not* seen as large, simple cells like this (and like seen in many textbooks!) 2/ Instead, it is a more chaotic affair, analogous to the difference between neat schematics of a depression, with everything neatly in the right place, and the complexity of actual atmospheric air motions.

1/ Update on the management approaches of the Geldingadalur lava flow as it heads south.

ruv.is/frett/2021/06/… 2/ It has been decided not to try to stop the lava flow from covering the coastal road to the south (called Suðurstrandarvegur).

The flow is expected to leave the southern end of Nátthagi within a week & reach the road around two weeks after that.

1. Today we were evaluating the accuracy of our forecasts of the routes taken by the Geldingadalur lava flows.

A THREAD ON TEACHING GEOGRAPHY *WITH* GIS 2. Yesterday, pupils had been using ArcGIS Scene Viewer to read the topography of the land to try to forecast & justify possible routes.

Reference made to
• thalweg
• how lava can rewrite the underlying topography to effectively flow up hil and overcome topographical barriers

** Schools have been getting ready for this: a thread **

In many ways, I don't blame folks who tweet things like this. The media coverage of the schools situation in Covid-19 rarely talks about the quiet, day-in-day-out work that schools have been doing these past 9 months. 1/ Instead, the coverage focused on the dramatic, last minute policy announcements by the government, or of dramatic stories of school closures, often accompanied by photos of socially distanced classrooms that those of us in schools this past term know are from a fantasy land. 2/

I'd be quite happy to debate the points made here, especially if the Tweeter would come out from behind an anonymous account and own their opinions.

There is genuinely a debate to be had. But surely the level of discourse can be better than this?

Let me start with one point 1/5

https://twitter.com/UsforThemNI/status/1343521552151814146

"Google Classroom can do their job for them! It may deliver info on a screen but that's it!"

Face to face is better than remote, of course. That's why I've been happy to be teaching in school since August and interacting with my pupils in my classroom. 2/5

** How is recap going with classes? A thread **

Useful recap session with Y12 on the fieldwork paper. I used a retrieval practice approach (low stakes quiz) to recap on some content covered in June. Pleasingly, good recall was generally shown by most who had engaged. #nigeogmeet But one common misconception on river velocity remained. This was one that I had identified in June & tried to address in one of my videos. I had used an analogy to do with streamlining of vehicles & related that to friction & its impact on velocity.