Category Archives: Geography

Globally significant volcanic event formed Giant’s Causeway, scientists find

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Geochronologists say Antrim coastline’s basalt columns developed over 5.5m years – 8m less than thought

For centuries, the tale has been passed from generation to generation: how the Irish giant Finn McCool built the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland to fight Benandonner, his Scottish rival, by hurling chunks of the Antrim coastline into the sea.

Now, scientists have revealed it was intense volcanic activity during a “major globally impacting volcanic event” – and not a legendary battle between two destructive giants – that led to the formation of the coastline’s 40,000 distinctive interlocking basalt columns about 60m years ago.

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Antarctica’s west coast missing an area of sea ice the size of France as temperatures peak 20C above average

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Exclusive A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’

Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels.

One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsular last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average.

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Lost orchards and blossom flourish in placenames across England and Wales

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Doubling of related street, house and farm names since 1900 gives glimpse of flower ‘ghosts’, says National Trust

Over the last century orchards and blossom trees have been slipping out of the British landscape at an alarming rate but the “ghosts” of lost flowers are glimpsed in an increasing number of placenames recalling the vanished pinks and whites, researchers have found.

A National Trust study has discovered that the number of street, house and farm names relating to orchards and blossom has doubled across England and Wales since the turn of the 20th century, a period in which more than half of traditional orchards have disappeared.

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Metro Memory and Tim Marshall put cartography back on the map

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London tube game is a surprise hit and three geography books by Marshall are bestsellers

In a world where we get from A to B by following the shortest route on our phones or satnavs, are cartographers mapping their way back into our national psyche?

Rather than ignoring what’s around us, we appear to be increasingly fascinated with locations and their significance, whether it’s through a viral tube map game, YouTube videos or books about geopolitics.

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Semeru volcano: 2,000 evacuated as Indonesia issues highest warning

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Eruption causes roads to close after volcanic ash rains down on Java island

A volcano has erupted in Indonesia, spewing a cloud of ash 15km into the sky and forcing the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people, authorities have said, as they issued their highest warning for the area in the east of Java island.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the eruption of the Semeru volcano and Indonesia’s transport ministry said air travel was not affected but notices had been sent to two regional airports for them to be vigilant.

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How Ernest Shackleton’s icy adventure was frozen in time

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An exhibition of vivid photographs and a restored documentary give fresh insight into the Antarctic explorer, who died a century ago

One hundred years ago, the leader of the last great expedition of the heroic age of polar exploration died from a heart attack as his ship, Quest, headed for Antarctica. The announcement of the death of Ernest Shackleton on 30 January 1922 was greeted with an outpouring of national grief.

This was the man, after all, who had saved the entire crew of his ship Endurance – which had been crushed and sunk by ice in 1915 – by making a daring trip in a tiny open boat over 750 miles of polar sea to raise the alarm at a whaling station in South Georgia.

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Ancient tsunami could have wiped out Scottish cities today, study finds

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Research maps the extent of the catastrophic Storegga tsunami 8,200 years ago for the first time

Towns and cities across Scotland would be devastated if the country’s coastline was hit by a tsunami of the kind that happened 8,200 years ago, according to an academics’ study.

While about 370 miles of Scotland’s northern and eastern coastline were affected when the Storegga tsunami struck, the study suggests a modern-day disaster of the same magnitude would have worse consequences.

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Jenny Vernon obituary

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My friend Jenny Vernon, who has died aged 75, was a museum curator who worked at Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire and later became keeper of Lincoln Castle. But she also had a keen interest in, and knowledge of, Arctic Canada, which she nurtured throughout her adult life.

Jenny was born in Bromley, Kent, to George Vestey, a metallurgist, and Violet (nee Grant), a clerical worker. She spent most of her childhood in Hertfordshire, where she went to school in St Albans. After studying geography at Manchester University she landed a job in 1966 as a geographer with the Canadian government, carrying out field work in the maritime provinces and publishing reports on settlement patterns.

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Quiz: can you identify these world cities from their density maps alone?

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The LSE Cities Urban Age Programme has created density diagrams showing the number of people living in each square kilometre of a 100km by 100km area for cities around the world. Can you identify them?

Which city is this?

Dhaka

Chicago

Shanghai

Lagos

Which city is this?

London

Paris

Rome

Madrid

Which city is this?

Buffalo

Accra

Marseilles

Brisbane

Which city is this?

Islamabad

Kabul

Karachi

New Delhi

Which city is this?

Mumbai

Cairo

Jakarta

Hong Kong

Which city is this?

Los Angeles

Vancouver

Cape Town

Taipei

Which city is this?

Recife

Newcastle

Havana

Dar es Salaam

Which city is this?

New Orleans

Malaga

Melbourne

Rio de Janeiro

Which city is this?

Toronto

New York

Sao Paulo

Barcelona

Which city is this?

Buenos Aires

Mexico City

Nairobi

Beijing

10 and above.

Well done!

3 and above.

Oh dear

4 and above.

Not bad

2 and above.

Oh dear

0 and above.

Oh dear

1 and above.

Oh dear

LSE Cities says: “Residential density measures how closely people live together. More compact cities have higher densities, while cities that sprawl and have wide open spaces between buildings have lower densities. The pattern of streets, squares and urban blocks – as well as how many people live in residential units – determines the density of a city alongside the height of individual buildings.

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