Lt. Peter Hansen Elementary School, Canton- June 1st

42° 11' 00" N
71° 07' 44" W
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The EarthView team is excited to be visiting Lt. Peter Hansen Elementary school in Canton for a second time this school year! We last visited the school in November and had a great time. The blog post for that visit can be found here. 

Our visit today brings us on the 5th anniversary of the June 1st tornado outbreak that devastated parts of Springfield and Monson Massachusetts. 

Tornado forming over the Connecticut River

On our visit to Coburn Elementary School in West Springfield a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Domingo and wrangler Eva crossed over the bridge (seen in the picture above) on the Connecticut River where a video was taken on June 1st, 2011 showing the EF-3 tornado forming. Eva had never been anywhere near the Springfield area before so it was interesting to be in the very place where such a powerful tornado formed and struck.

EarthView was at Granite Middle School in Monson just a two weeks after that tragedy; the school was not struck by the tornado, but the town and many of the students were very much affected. The satellite image below shows the path of the tornado -- over 30 miles long -- and the location of that school.

When we think of tornadoes we tend to think of the mid-western United States, however they certainly can occur here in Massachusetts! So be prepared for severe storms this summer by visiting ready.gov and making a disaster supply kit and a family emergency plan! Kids can check out ready.gov/kids to get information and become prepared for a storm emergency! 

We hope that the students of Hansen Elementary School enjoy their visit with Earthview today! 

Garfield Middle School, Revere- May 25th

42° 24' 12" N
70° 59' 34" W
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The EarthView team is excited to be visiting Garfield Middle in Revere for the first time! We took a quick hiatus last week as both Dr. Hayes-Bohanan and Dr. Domingo traveled abroad but we're back for another exciting adventure!

While this is our first visit to Garfield Middle, it is not our first visit to Revere. We last visited Revere in 2012 when we went to Rumney Marsh Academy. We'll back to Rumney Marsh on June 8th! 

Antarctic Sea Ice 2014

This week's interesting article comes from Discovery News and is titled "Why Antarctic Sea Ice Isn't Shrinking". The article explains that while the Arctic Sea ice has been shrinking at an alarming rate, the ice surrounding Antarctica has seen record highs in its extent. A new study may explain why this is so and it has to do with the topography of Antarctica and the depth of the ocean surrounding it. It is a quick read but I recommend it as it deals with the ever tricky issue of "Global Warming" which is really, "Global Climate Change" as some places are warming, while others are not...but that's an issue for another day. 

We hope that the students of Garfield Middle enjoy their visit with EarthView today and we hope to be back again soon! 

Update from the school: We were excited to see all of the flags on display in the school showing all of the countries that Garfield's students come from. This flag display is similar to one that we had at Bridgewater State University in the campus center to represent all of our international students. 

         


                                           

Nested Islands

14°00'07" N 

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enlarge

120°59'34" E

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Just for fun, we are sharing an unusual geographic superlative. You can use the coordinates above to located it on your own globe, or you can explore it using Google Maps below.

The superlative is Vulcan Point Rock, the world's largest island in a lake in an island in a lake on an island? This implies that there are other nested lakes of this kind; Vulcan is just the largest one. It is located within Luzon, which is the largest and most populous island of the Philippines.

Geographers at the University of California Santa Barbara have a lot more information to share about this island and the volcanoes of the Philippines.


EarthView coordinator Dr. Hayes-Bohanan was very interested in learning about Vulcan Point Rock, because of fond memories taking a couple different boats to visit an ecology lab that includes Gibraltar Island, which is an island in a bay in an island in a lake in Ohio.

Coburn Elementary School, West Springfield- May 11th

42°06'29" N 

72°37'16" W

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This week the EarthView team is excited to be visiting Coburn Elementary School in West Springfield! This is our first ever school visit in West Springfield! While it is quite the drive for us from Bridgewater State University (106 miles one way, about a 2 hour drive) but it'll be quite easy for the Globe Lady as she only has a 40 minute drive! 

While we haven't been to West Springfield, or Springfield, we have mentioned the city in previous blog posts. Dr. Hayes-Bohanan discussed the meaning behind the name Six Flags, the famous amusement park located outside of Springfield in nearby Agawam, the blog post for that discussion can be found here. He also wrote a bit about the June 1st, 2011 tornado outbreak that spawned a tornado in the Springfield area, that post can be found here. 

This weeks interesting article comes from NPR.org. It is entitled, "Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid" and talks all about the uncovering of rocks located within the impact crater that is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs! The impact crater known as Chicxulub is located off of the Yucatan Peninsula, it is 125 miles across and was created 66 million years ago! 

As samples of these rocks are taken out of the Earth from about 2,200 feet below the ocean floor, scientists hope to find fossils of microorganisms that survived the asteroid impact. Only time will tell us what happened during the aftermath of the asteroid strike some 66 million years ago!

We hope that the students of Coburn Elementary enjoy their visit with EarthView! 

Update: We had a great visit to Coburn Elementary and were thrilled to see so many students whose families are from all across the globe! The school does a nice job of displaying on a map where their students are from right in the front entry way: 

Spofford Pond School, Boxford- May 6th

42°41'46" N 

71°01'02" W

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The EarthView team is excited to be visiting the Spofford Pond School in Boxford! This will be our fifth visit to the school since our first visit in 2010. Despite the long drive (about 1 hour and 40 minutes without traffic), we very much enjoy visiting this school as it was the first school to welcome us to the North Shore of Massachusetts! The picture below was taken at our last visit to the school, May 1st of last year. 

Dr. Hayes-Bohanan talking about coffee!

This week concludes our Friday visits for this school year. However we still have plenty of more visits left! We will be visiting schools on Wednesdays starting in West Springfield next week! 

In world geography news: there is a massive wildfire that has consumed 328 square miles in the Alberta province of Canada. The fire has consumed more area then all of the 5 boroughs of New York City (304.6 square miles).



The massive fire comprises 49 separate fires that have unfortunately spread out of control and unfortunately continue to spread as the ground is very dry. Over 88,000 people near Fort McMurray have been evacuated and over 1,600 homes have been destroyed by the blaze.

Wildfire in Fort McMurray 

With over 1,000 firefighters on the ground and in the air, the only real relief will come from rain and there isn't much rain in the forecast. We hope that relief in the form of rain will come soon and that the firefighters can get these blazes under control before they consume anymore land and homes and especially before it claims the life of someone.

Meanwhile, firefighters from as far away as MEXICO are coming to Alberta to assist.

We hope that the students of Spofford Pond School enjoy their visit with EarthView today!

During our visit we also told some classes about a great new geographic discovery: a coral reef 600 miles in length that nobody knew about until last month. The reef is at the mouth of the world's biggest river (in water volume): the Amazon. In Amazon Surprise, Dr. Hayes-Bohanan's he describes how the geography of this river made it possible for this huge reef to hide in plain sight.