Happisburgh, UK

Happisburgh is a small town in Norfolk County, England.  It is currently facing some pretty severe coastal erosion.  The tides have been cutting into the cliffs and slowly moving them inland towards houses and other structures.  According to the British Geological Survey, Happisburgh never used to be a coastal town, because at one point there was a whole parish between it and the sea.  The town is unfortunately sitting on layers of glacial till that do not hold up well against pounding waves.

December 30, 1999

July 1, 2009

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:       52°49'23.11"N       01°32'20.53"E

More info: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/landslides/happisburgh.html

Check back next week to see the largest (supposedly) text in the world.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FOLKS!

Greensburg, Kansas

On the night of May 4th, 2007, Greensburg Kansas (population 1600 at the time) was leveled by an EF5 tornado.  Ninety-five percent of the town was destroyed and 11 people lost their lives.  It was the first tornado to be given a classification of "5" on the Enhanced Fujita scale went into effect earlier that year.  The town has since been rebuilt into a "green town", running mostly on wind turbines.

August 2, 2006

May 6, 2007

RADAR:

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:      37°36'10.07"N     99°17'33.41"W

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensburg,_Kansas

Check back next week to see beach erosion.

Buxton, North Carolina

Spit... but not the kind you're probably thinking of.  A spit is a coastal landform that forms from longshore drift.  It can basically be summed up as a long pile of sand that has extended off of a cape.  They tend to change frequently depending on ocean currents and this series of images is a great example of that:

February 28, 1993

February 14, 1998

February 18, 2004

September 1, 2005

October 16, 2005

July 30, 2006

October 3, 2008

October 18, 2009

 August 27, 2011

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:      35°13'00.33"N     75°31'47.45"W

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spit_(landform)

Check back next week to see an EF5 tornado's effects on a small town.

Manama, Bahrain

Near the beginning of this year, a wave of political demonstrations swept across the Middle Eastern and North African Arab nations.  Millions of people organized using social media to protest government repression and corruption.  The event became known as Arab Spring.  In Bahrain, Shia Muslims protested the government to ask for more freedoms and equality.  The protestors in Bahrain began organizing around the Pearl Roundabout on February 14th.  The Bahrain government began a violent retaliation on protestors resulting in a number of protestor deaths.  The government also decided to tear down the Pearl Roundabout statue on the 18th in order to deter protestors.  Amazingly, a satellite caught an image of the protestors around the Pearl Roundabout in the 4 days that it was still up.

June 16, 2010

This was the site the year before the protests

Sometime between February 14, 2011 and February 18, 2011

During protests

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:       26°13'49.26"N    50°33'41.00"E

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Bahraini_uprising

Check back next week to see an always-changing landform

ATTENTION! This weekend is the 2011 Annual Geological Society of America Meeting in Minneapolis, MN.  If you see me there, say hello! My badge will say "Brian Schrock Olivet Nazarene University"