Topic: Climate and Mineral Resources
Warming-up: test on the previous topic (40 min)
Brainstorming:
v What is the most common way to start a conversation in Britain? – Talk about the weather.
v What is climate and what is weather?
Climate is an average weather conditions over a long period of time.
Weather is a state of the atmosphere at a given time or over a short period.
Facts determining the British climate:
a) geographical position
b) proximity of the sea and the ocean
c) prevailing winds
d) the relief
Britain is situated between latitudes 500 to 610 north and is influenced by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. This results into not so big seasonal contrasts as on the continent. Marine influences warm the land in winter and cool it in summer.
The country lies predominantly in the westerly wind-belt. The westerlies are extremely moist (due to their long passing through the Atlantic). They move upwards, where the condensation takes place and the precipitations fall over the mountainous areas.
North and north-west winds bring heavy snowfalls in the north in October and November. The eastern/ continental winds bring warm, dray airstream in summer and cold continental type of weather in winter.
The relief is the most important factor in the distribution of temperature and precipitations. The average rainfall throughout Britain is » 1,100mm. The mountainous areas of the west and north have far more rainfall than the lowlands of the south and east.
The Western Scottish Highlands
The Lake District get more than 2,000 mm
The Welsh Uplands
Parts of Devon & Cornwall
Eastern lowlands are much drier and get little precipitations. Much of eastern and south-eastern England receives less than 700mm.
The Irish Plain gets 1,200 mm in the form of steady prolonged drizzle. The snowfalls are very rare.
Rainfall is fairly well distributed throughout the year. March-June are the driest months and October-January are the wettest ones.
The range of temperature
England & Wales – 100 C
Scotland & Ireland – 90C
July & August – the warmest months
January & February – the coldest months Average temperatures:
(N) winter – 30C
summer – 120C
(S) winter – 50C
summer – 160C
The distribution of sunshine shows a general decrease from north to south and the latter has much longer periods than the former.
It’s frequently said that GB doesn’t experience climate, but only weather. Monthly climatic conditions show that there are no very great variations from year to year or between corresponding seasons of different years.
Mineral Wealth
The Industrial Revolution in Britain started in the late 18th-19th century with the discovery of the steam engine, thus marking the British into the Industrial Nation. The Industrial Revolution was based on the two main minerals – coal and iron ore.
Previously GB had enough non-ferrous metals (copper, lead, tin), but with time many of its most valuable deposits had been work out. The absence of high grade iron ore, manganese, chrome, nickel, etc. – makes the economy greatly dependent on imported raw materials.
Coal has been worked out for 700 years. Traditionally Britain is a coal exporting country, which possessed the richest and most accessible coalfields containing the best coal. With the introduction of the new sources of power the production of coal decreased to 100 million tons. About 60% of coal output comes from Yorkshire & the Midlands.
Oil & Gas. With the discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1960s the production of oil has risen to 125 million tons. There are over 40 oil fields. The most important offshore oil fields are located off the eastern and northern coasts of Scotland and north-east England.
The largest oil fields are Brent, Forties, Ekofisk and others.
The principal refineries are located on coast – Milford Haven, the Thames estuary, Southampton, Merseyside, Grangemouth, etc.
In the 1960s together with oil discoveries several gas fields were also found in the continental shelf off the east coast of Britain, in the bed of the North Sea. The major gas fields are Leman, Bank, Hewett, Viking and others.
Today Britain is completely self-sufficient in oil and gas, but still some amount comes from Norway and Algeria.
Iron Ore is one of the most abundant metals in the world. The total reserves of it in Britain makes up 3,800 million tons. By the 1850s most of the best iron ores have been worked out, and in the early 1990s Britain could produce only 300,000 tons annually. Thus, almost all iron ore is imported mainly from Sweden, North and West Africa, Canada and South America.
Non-Ferrous Metals. GB is not rich in such minerals and nearly all of them are imported. They are manganese, tin, copper, zinc.
Non-Metallic Minerals. The country is rich in great variety of them: granites (Devon & Cornwall), clay, chalk, sand, gravel, salt, kaolin (white clay for china, paper making), gypsum, potash, peat, etc.
Today Britain uses not only traditional sources of energy like fossil fuels, but also the alternative ones like the power of the wind and the tides.
Lecture 5: Religion of the UK
Plan:
I. The History of the Church in Britain:
a) the arrival of Christianity
b) the rise of the Anglican Church
c) the rise of the Presbyterian Church
d) the rise of the Puritan movement
II. The Christian denominations of the UK