Kiara Kearns

February 14, 2020

Expedition Earth: Introduction to Geography

Blog: East Asia: Current Events in East and Southeast Asia

The first article I found was titled “7.0-Magnitude Quake Strikes off Japan's Hokkaido, Russia's Kuril Islands.' I chose this article because it was extremely current, taking place on February 13th. I also chose it because it had such a strong geographic aspect. Earthquakes greatly interest me personally and have a huge impact on our earth. They literally change the way the ground lays, take down buildings, cause tsunamis, and displace homes.

The second article I found was a little bit less recent but I still found it very intriguing. It was written by National Geographic and was titled “Southeast Asia May Be Building Too Many Dams Too Fast.' It was the impact the dams had that had the biggest geographic effects. One of the dams collapsed and caused places to flood, threatened fish, soil, and people. The article states, “A dam under construction some 155 miles (250 kilometers) upstream, in neighboring Laos, had collapsed the day before after heavy monsoon rains, sending a deluge of water down the already swollen, swirling Sekong. The floodwaters, villagers were told, could reach as far as Stung Treng, the provincial capital in northern Cambodia where the Sekong joins the even larger Mekong River.' I appreciated learning about these new rivers and the geographic effects of breaking dams, although the article was less recent than the first.  

 Huaxia. “7.0-Magnitude Quake Strikes off Japan's Hokkaido, Russia's Kuril Islands.' Xinhua, 13 Feb. 2020, www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/13/c_138780954.htm.

Guttenfelder, David, and Soe Zeya Tun. “Southeast Asia May Be Building Too Many Dams Too Fast.' Mekong River Dams Threaten Southeast Asia's Fish, Soil, and People, 23 Aug. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/08/news-southeast-asia-building-dams-floods-climate-change/.