Tag: haiti

Waves and earthquakes

There are a lot of Earth Science applications that deal with waves. Seismic waves from earthquakes are a major one that is particularly pertinent after the recent Haitian earthquake. There are quite a number of lesson plans dealing with seismic waves at Larry Braile’s website. Most of the lessons are as practical demonstrations pdf’s and some use downloadable software (Windows only unfortunately), but there are some online applications as well.

In terms of online resources, the IRIS network, produces nice maps of recent earthquake locations. It also has a good page with “Teachable Moments” regarding recent earthquakes. These include the above video of why the Haitian earthquake did not produce a tsunami.

Although it’s not directly related to waves, I particularly like the thermal convection experiment on Braile’s website. It provides, with a baking dish, a sterno can, some water and some thyme, a great example of the convection in the Earth’s mantle that drive plate tectonics.

Haiti

The plight of Haiti is on the front pages with the latest disaster. Starting with the first and only, I believe, successful slave rebellion, the nation was founded with such promise. Sadly, however, most of Haiti’s history since then has been tragic. A series of disfunctional, corrupt governments were not helped by almost continuous intervention by the European and American powers. The result, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. David Rudder, a Caribbean song writer and singer, captures the sadness of this history and the current abdication of responsibility of its neighbors in the song Haiti.

According to Rudder:

… this was the first Republic in the New World. The first free Republic and led by a slave. You can’t get more intense than that and look where it’s at now. … it’s also saying to people in the Caribbean that we were brought here on the same ship, but the English speaking Caribbean does not know what is going on in the Spanish speaking Caribbean and vice versa or the French speaking Caribbean. We are looking outwards to different places and at the end of the day all we have is ourselves. The wider societies don’t really have time with us again.